Null Zone Adventures
by aynrkey
Summary: A doctor who universe adventure. The Antelope Valley is a Null Zone - nothing ever happens there. Until the Doctor contacts Nell in a dream to ask her for help with what shouldn't be happening. Strong criticism requested.


Nell Rothbard – this character is the central character, the one whom around everything revolves. She is in her late teens, very attractive, extremely intelligent, creative, and mildly psychic. She is strong willed and firm in her convictions, but also caring. At the beginning of the story she doesn't know her own history, but by the end she discovers that he has her mother's brains and her father's willpower as well as the fact that her family is from the future. To do – see if I can make her more likable, to make her less of a super-character or Mary Sue.

Lysander Rothbard – Nell's father, a political refugee from the future. Although not scientifically inclined he knows quite a bit more than he lets on. Due to his politics he is somewhat paranoid and has a fetish for privacy and not calling attention to oneself unnecessarily. He is very protective of Nell. To do – make him look like less of a coward.

Robert Justiniano – Nell's best friend from school. He is quite above average in intelligence, curiosity, and creativity, but while he would stand out among normal people he is dwarfed by Nell. He makes up for this by trying to prove his courage in situations where they are at risk. To do – edit the story to increase showing his courage.

Janus – the principle villain of the first part of the novel, he is a psychic being from a psychic plane. He arrived on the Earth after being overthrown on a prior planet by the Doctor. Once here his plan was to conquer the Earth a little at a time and set himself up as the ruler of a new empire. The more people he is in contact with the more powerful he gets.

Derrick Dandrough – a thoroughly incompetent Temporal Special Agent. He is entirely dependent on his robots to do his job for him. He seeks to find Lysander and Wendy Rothbard in order to bring them back to the future for trial on charges of crimes against the state, subversive activities, and treason. To do – make him look more incompetent.

Nicholas Kotz, Alan, and Jessica – the three representatives of the Families. They try to act as if they are more important than they really are but they are minor representatives sent to investigate a minor anomaly. They are equals to the point of taking turns interacting with people although Nicholas does public relations, Alan does security, and Jessica does technology. The last names of Alan and Jessica aren't chosen yet.

The Alien in the Window – this being is very mysterious. All that is known is that it is immensely powerful and trapped in a pocket dimension. Even from that pocket dimension it has managed to project itself outward and manipulate events in its favor. It seeks to escape, to an unknown end. It has turned the Antelope Valley into a "Null Zone".

Null Zone – a Null Zone is a place where nothing important ever happens. If something important does happen, it is because it is happening everywhere else around it and it not happening there would be notable. Nothing is notable in a Null Zone, which ironically makes them notable in their own right. They are difficult to identify because of the paradoxical nature of searching for nothing. The Antelope Valley appears to be a Null Zone but isn't. It is actually a magnet for weird because the Alien in the Window draws anything alien and powerful to the Antelope Valley, but then draws them to herself cleansing the valley and making it appear to be a Null Zone. Many beings looking to hide from attention are attracted to the Antelope Valley for that reason. This has also attracted some attention from the Families and from the government, both of whom are quite unsure what to make of this anomalous area.

This novel is, in my mind, divided into three parts. Part one ends with the defeat of Janus. Part two starts with the search for Janus' ship and ends with the capture of Dandrough. Part three is the descent into the underground to find the mysterious force guiding events in the Antelope Valley.

Part two is the part that needs the most work. I need critical plot suggestions to improve the cat-and-mouse game with Dandrough and to streamline the meeting between the heroes and the three families. There is a lot of superfluous material in part two, as I was randomly throwing out ideas.

Null Zone Adventures

by Jason Gonella

Episode 1 - Pilot

Nell of the Null Zone

Prologue

It looked like a meteor hurtling through the atmosphere, with a glow of heated air in front and a tail of smoke trailing as it sped towards the ground. Abruptly, reverse thruster jets ignited slowing the burning sphere just enough to reduce the force of the impact to barely tolerable levels.

Even so, the landing was rather forceful. The desert landscape was torn apart, sending up large clouds of dust and throwing chunks of debris around, accompanied by a deafening roar and screech. Then the motion stopped, leaving only the quiet peace of the drifting clouds of dust.

At the end of the crater-like trench was the craft. It was a large, white ovoid, six feet across at the major axis. As the dust continued to drift away or settle on the craft a hatch opened. A person, resembling a human, crawled out. He climbed the slope created by the crash and stood up. With the dust cleared it was obvious that this person was not human, as his dark blue skin, black hair, and black eyes with red irises would have made him stand out immediately. He was dressed in an outfit of close-fitting black velvet which was accumulating dust. He pulled himself upright and brushed off his clothing.

He looked around and sniffed the air a few times.

"This planet looks promising," he said. "But is there intelligent life on it?"

He closed his eyes and stood completely still for several minutes. Finally he reopened his eyes. "Very good. Intelligent life, but the cultural evolution is just before the development of true space flight. Moderate psychic ability, but untapped. This planet will serve quite well."

He took a few steps away from the crashed ship, pointed a small device at it, and the hatch closed seamlessly leaving it looking like a giant egg. Then the craft shimmered and its appearance changed to that of a boulder.

"I need to adopt more suitable attire," he said. Again he closed his eyes, and his skin lightened, turning from blue to a more pinkish hue. When he reopened his eyes, although the irises were still red the black sclera were now white.

He saw a movement on the horizon.

"Excellent, someone is coming."

Chapter One

Nell was asleep in her bed. The bedroom was rather nicely decorated, typical for a suburban middle class teenage girl. The morning light was still dim, but Nell tossed restlessly and talked in her sleep.

"No, it's too hard," she murmured. "Somebody else?" she asked softly and rolled over again.

Someone was in her room with her. He placed a blue box on her nightstand next to the bed. Nell rolled back and muttered "if there's nobody else then." Softly, as if from a distance, a weird grinding noise was heard. Nell suddenly sat up and gasped awake.

Slightly panicked, she looked around reassuring herself of her familiar surroundings. Seeing that everything was normal she quickly calmed down, threw off the blankets, and got out of bed. She slipped her feet into her slippers, and was about to go to the closet to choose some clothing when she noticed the box on the nightstand.

It looked like a perfectly ordinary box, small, medium to dark blue, with white trim forming squares on the sides. The problem was, that box was not in her room when she went to sleep the night before. Cautiously she approached it, and after a moment's hesitation she lifted the lid.

There were several items in the box that she did not recognize. One item looked rather like a bracelet, so she picked it up and noticed that the stones on it glowed faintly when it was on her arm. She examined it for a moment, shrugged, and then noticed that underneath where the bracelet was there was a blue envelope, sitting on top of everything else in the box. She picked it up, opened it, and read the letter inside.

Dear Nell,

I'm sorry to have to do this, but I am in a bind. I really need someone to do some work for me. I'd do it myself but I'm rather busy right now and I'm also supposed to be dead. If I were to show up at this moment it would raise some rather awkward questions.

That's why I'm relying on you to take care of this, otherwise the planet is doomed. Seriously, there's someone coming who will be trying to take over, even though that is impossible. He's coming to your area, even though that's not supposed to happen. So since you shouldn't be there either I figured that you would be the best person to take care of this for me.

Hurry up, there's a lot you have to do in order to save the world.

"What in the world?" she asked, but she got dressed quickly picking clothing at random. She hurried down the stairs.

"Dad, are you still home?" she called out, but he had already gone to work. She noticed another blue envelope on the table in the kitchen. Warily, she reached out and opened it.

Dear Nell,

Turn on the radio.

Feeling a little frightened she did so. The station wasn't one that she or her father normally listened to, but Nell didn't change it. Instead she listened to the newscast.

"Reports of a meteor falling in the valley are still unverified. Although there was positive satellite tracking, confirmed by both NASA and the Air Force, and overhead images indicate where it has probably landed, nobody has been able to find it on the ground. This has drawn many people who are independently searching the desert trying to find this meteor before the government does. I have with me one such explorer. Sir, why are you looking for this meteor?"

"I read in the newspaper a few months back about some lady who sold one for ten grand. If this is as big as I heard, then I could probably sell it to some collector for more than that."

"Aren't you interested in the scientific possibilities of this find? What could be learned from it?"

"Lady, I've got a wife and kids to feed and I've been out of a job for six months. If some scientist wants to buy it that's good for me."

"And there you have it people, another person searching for this mysterious meteor. Back to you Kevin."

Nell turned off the radio. This was starting to come together, although how the person leaving the blue envelopes could have possibly known was still troubling.

"Ok, whoever you are, what's next?" asked Nell to the mysterious person. There was no answer. "Is that it? You want me to look for the meteor?" Still getting no answer she started packing a back-pack with snacks and water to get ready to trek through the desert to find the meteor before anyone else did. "Never mind then, I'll figure it out."

Just as she was about to head out there was a knock at the front door. Her bracelet started glowing brightly, giving her a nervous feeling.

"Who is it?"

"Nell, it's me, Robert. Can I come in for a sec?"

Nell sighed with relief. Finally something normal was happening. "Yes, but only for a sec. My dad doesn't like it when I have someone else here when I'm alone. He's very protective, you know."

"Good," said Robert, pushing his way in as soon as Nell opened the door. "Nell, you won't believe it. Did you see it on the news? About the meteor?"

"I heard about it on the radio. Why? You look excited."

"Well, I went out looking for it."

"The reporter said nobody's found it yet."

"The reporter is wrong. I found it. It's amazing, one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. She doesn't know, but she will. Soon everyone will find out about it."

"Find out about what?"

"The meteor, of course. What did you think I was talking about?"

"I wasn't sure. Of course you meant the meteor."

"So come on, we've got to go."

"I should leave a note for my dad."

"There's no time, you can do that later."

Robert's behavior was troubling. He normally wasn't this pushy. Nell looked him over cautiously.

"There's something different about you Robbie."

"I'm just excited, that's all. Come on."

"There it is. You hate it when I call you 'Robbie.' What's really going on?"

Robert seemed stumped for a second. Then he finally answered "This is a really special meteor. I think it will make us all rich, and I want to get to it before anyone else finds it."

"No, Robert, that's not it."

"Huh?"

Nell looked carefully at Robert. There was indeed something different about him. Something that she couldn't quite see, but she was sure it was there, almost as if seeing it out of the corner of her eye. And there was a faint hint that there was someone else there as well.

"You're different. Something about that meteor changed you."

"What are you talking about? Come on, we have to get going."

"No. We're going to stay here and figure out what's going on with you. You say you went to the meteor, and now you're not acting like yourself. You're a lot pushier than normal, and you've lied to me about what's going on. Somehow I always know."

"Nell, you're being unreasonable. You've never been suspicious like this before."

"So sit down and let's talk this out." Nell led Robert inside, reached into her pocket and pulled out a bag. "Do you want a chocolate ball? A mint? Or perhaps a bit of jerky?"

Robert sat down. "No, I'm not hungry. Eleanor, we've been friend for a long time. Yes, I was pushy, because I was excited. But I wanted to surprise you with what I found there, nothing more. I was too excited to be evasive I guess."

"That sounds better," said Nell. "But again, there's something you're not telling me, something important. And I think I need to know what's really going on."

"Good grief, Nell."

"Exactly. You're still not yourself, but you did a better job acting like yourself."

"Oh hell," said Robert. "I hoped we could do this the easy way." He walked towards Nell and grabbed her arm.

"What are you doing?" exclaimed Nell as she tried to pull away.

"It won't hurt if you don't resist. You'll find it's actually quite nice." He pulled her in closer. She started punching at him, but he didn't seem to notice. He held her face firmly by both hands and roughly kissed her. After a few seconds he let go and she fell backwards. Her bracelet was glowing brightly.

"Robert, what the hell!"

"It didn't work?" Robert looked stunned.

"What didn't work? What were you trying to do there? Get out of my house!"

"It was supposed to make you one of us."

"Get out! Wait, 'one of us?' What the hell are you talking about?"

"This is above my level. I need to take you to the boss."

"You need to apologize and leave!"

"And you need to come with me." He reached out and grabbed her arm again and started dragging her to the door.

"Oh no you don't," said Nell. The reared back and smacked Robert across the face, causing him to let go. The bracelet flashed as she did so.

"So, why did you just try to kiss me? Tell the truth." She fixed him with a very steely gaze and he backed down as he looked at her.

"It was supposed to make you one of us."

"One of who?"

"I'm not allowed to say. You're not one of us yet."

"And you were going to take me to someone else since this kiss didn't work?"

"Yes."

She walked over to Robert, put her hands on his cheeks, and looked him straight in the eye. "First of all, you will never try to kiss me again, got it? Now, second of all, I think it is time for Robert to speak to me instead of whoever you are possessing him."

"It's not really a possession, Nell."

"Whatever it is, I want you out of his mind."

Nell held firmly to Robert's face, as he gave a few useless efforts to resist. His face contorted as the mental struggle waged inside Robert, but after a moment he collapsed.

"Robert?" asked Nell tentatively.

"Nell? How did I get here?"

"What do you remember?"

"Someone was talking to me about going to see the comet. That's it."

"Think hard. There was a lot more that happened since then, and I need you to know it."

Robert concentrated. "I remember. It's hazy. I didn't actually go to the comet. I met someone. He got inside my head, the way you just did."

"Do you know who he is?"

"I don't remember."

"It's something to go on at least. Do you at remember where you were about to take me?"

"No. Wait, yes."

"Then that's where we should go next. You wait here while I go upstairs and get a few things."

Chapter Two

Robert had parked his car in the driveway, so as soon as Nell was ready they were off. "I'm not feeling all that good about this," said Robert as he pulled into traffic.

"Robert, we've got to do this. You helped pull me into this, you should help me through it. So at least you can take me there."

"I'm not scared for me, I'm worried about you. You shouldn't be putting yourself at risk like this."

"So you're my bodyguard now?"

"Yeah, that's what I am," said Robert, sounding frustrated. "I'm your bodyguard. You were right, I got you into this, the least I can do is help you out of it."

"Ok, don't get mad. So where are we going?"

"Some guys house. His house. The guy I was taking you to. I don't remember who he is, I don't think he told me. I just kind of knew, but that was it. I don't know a lot of it anymore. Just the stuff that we actually said."

"What were you doing?"

"Well, we were all going out to recruit our friends. Bring more people in. The guy I was going to take you to, he's kind of a coordinator. We all reported to him."

"So he's the boss?"

"Nnno," said Robert rather slowly, thinking it over. "No, he wasn't the boss. He worked for the boss, I kind of remember that."

"Do you remember who the boss is?"

"No. No, I never saw the boss. Before you ask, I can't remember anything about him. Just a vague presence."

"Is it related to the meteor?"

"Um, yes. I was going to look for the meteor. There were already people there. They were all part of this. I remember this woman came up and kissed me, and that's where everything gets fuzzy."

"Kissing? So that's why you tried to kiss me?"

"I tried? I guess I probably did, if that's how it works. Was I any good?"

"Good?"

"Never mind. So yeah, a bunch of us split up to go to different houses, so we could all work on bringing more people in."

"Hm. Mind control, but you have to be recruited individually. By kissing people. Weird. How long until we get there?"

"Only a few more minutes. I mostly remember the way, but I've got to watch carefully to make sure I don't go the wrong way."

The rest of the ride passed in silence. Nell studied her bracelet while Robert drove carefully through the suburban streets. They stopped in front of a non-descript middle class house.

"We're here."

"I kind of guessed. Look at this?" Nell held up her bracelet. The gems were glowing serenely.

"What is that?"

"I don't know. It glowed a little when I put it on. It glowed more when you came over, but when you stopped being all weird it stopped glowing so much. Now it's glowing again, brightly. Whatever was going on with you, there's a lot of it in there."

"I don't get it. Where did you get that bracelet?"

"Long story. I was warned that you were coming by the same guy who gave me this bracelet."

"Really? What did he look like?"

"I never saw him. He left it on a box on my nightstand while I was sleeping."

"A stranger broke into your house while you were sleeping and you trust him?"

"I know, this could be an elaborate trap to get me here. I don't see why, I never thought I was that important before. Well, what are we sitting here waiting for? Let's go in."

They got out of the car and stood next to each other for a moment on the sidewalk.

"Look at us, acting all scared," said Nell, trying to bolster her own courage. "They already know you."

"I think they'll know I'm not one of them anymore."

"Only one way to find out."

They walked up the driveway and then to the front door.

"Should we knock?" asked Robert.

"No. Just open it. Lead us in. Try to pretend you're still one of them. Act like you are doing what you were originally going to do, turn me over to them."

"And if they figure out that I'm not one of them anymore?"

"We'll figure out what to do from there."

"You're the boss."

"Then lead me in."

Robert grabbed Nell's hand, opened the door, and pulled her in. The door led to the living room, which had been repurposed into an office. One man sat at the table, making notes and talking on the phone. He looked up when Robert entered and hung up the phone.

"Robert, what are you doing here? I didn't call you back."

"Yeah, boss. Um, there was a problem, see. I was trying to do what you told me, but it didn't work. Somehow she was able to resist. So I figured I'd bring her to you and see what you had to say about that."

"Oh, good thinking. So what is her name?"

"Eleanor Rothbard. Her friends call her Nell. I figured she'd be perfect, she's the prettiest and smartest girl at our school, she could probably bring lots of people over to us if she tried."

"Not a bad idea, Robert. But somehow she was able to resist. Curious. And a little disconcerting when you think about it. Imagine that, someone resisting what we are trying to do. We're only trying to make this world a better place. Come, come, sit down Nell."

"He said my friends call me that."

"Sorry, I suppose I should call you Eleanor, at least until we are finally friends."

"That's not going to happen." Nell held up her bracelet and looked at it. "You're not yourself either, are you? You're not the boss. So, will you be introducing me to the boss?"

"Oh, that won't be necessary. He's a very busy man after all. I'm all you'll actually need. So please, sit down. There's no reason for you to be uncomfortable."

"Am I free to go?"

"I'm afraid not. You'll have to stay here until we can figure out what to do with you. You understand my situation here, we're doing something very big here. It's for your own good, of course. We promise to bring peace to this planet."

"Yeah, I've watched Bond films with my dad. I've heard that sort of stuff before."

The man laughed.

"Not like that, I assure you."

"You're not going to give me the evil villain speech, and tell me what your plot is before you destroy me?"

"What? Look, have a seat."

"What's your name?"

"Allen Jenkins."

"Mr. Jenkins, either you tell me what's going on, or I'm leaving

"Robert, make her sit down."

Robert pulled Nell over to the sofa and forced her down. At that moment three more people entered, two men and a woman.

"Good job, Robert, especially considering that you're no longer one of us. I'm not sure how that happened. But I had to keep you talking long enough for a few more of us to get here. We're going to figure out what to do next."

"You knew?" asked Robert.

"It was obvious from the moment you walked in. Do you really think you could fool us so easily?"

"Yes."

"Now we have to make you one of us again."

"I'll pass."

"You don't get a say in it I'm afraid."

Robert looked down at Nell. "Well, what now?"

"We're kind of out numbered, two to four."

"Yes, I think we are. So we can't fight."

"Nope."

Allen nodded slowly.

"I guess that leaves only one option."

Nell stood up and faced Robert.

"Peas porridge hot," they said together, clapping their hands against their laps than against each other. Mr. Jenkins looked bewildered. "Peas porridge cold. Peas porridge in the pot nine days old."

At the world "old" they both jumped over the couch and ran into the kitchen. They ran through the house hearing Mr. Jenkins yell "After them!"

They ran through the back door. "I guess they've never watched the road movies" panted Nell as they tried to race around the house. But as they rounded the corner they saw the way blocked by two people.

"You cannot out-smart us so easily," called the lady. "We work together too well. You'll find the other side of the house blocked as well."

Robert and Nell looked at each other.

"We're screwed. We'll never get to my car this way."

"Nope," said Nell. "We can't go on either side of the house, and we can't go through the house. We'll just have to get creative. Follow me."

They ran back into the back yard. There was a brick wall there, as is common in most of the neighborhoods. Nell jumped onto the patio table, and Robert followed. They leapt over the back wall into the yard on the other side, through the neighbor's yard, and out into the street.

"It won't take them long to figure out where we've gone," said Nell. "We need to get moving quickly, get out of here."

"I don't want to leave my car behind."

"It's too risky. We can get it when this is all done."

They walked down the street at a hurried pace, no longer running.

"The way I see it, we've got an advantage. We can go anywhere as long as we get away. They have to try to remain inconspicuous, and they don't know what we're going to do next."

"I don't know what we're going to do next," said Robert.

"That's why they don't know either. If we don't know they can't know."

"But if any of them see us," began Robert.

"I know. They can communicate better than we can. They're very well coordinated. If one of them sees us the rest know where we are. But I've figured something out. This bracelet, it lights up near them. We have some warning too that should help if they get close."

"Where'd you get that?"

"It ... it was a gift. I was told that today would be interesting, and someone assigned me to deal with those people."

"Who?"

"Exactly."

"Huh?"

The stones on the bracelet started to flicker more brightly.

"Duck, they're close. Here, behind this hedge. If we can get behind them, maybe we can get out of here before they catch us."

Chapter Three

Robert and Nell ducked behind the hedge. From the front lawn they saw a few people walk by. Nell's bracelet flashed as those looking for her walked by. Neither dared breathe until the sidewalk was clear.

"Come on, hurry up," she said to Robert. They ran down the sidewalk, Robert looking out for other people while Nell kept an eye on her bracelet. It started to flash again so she pulled him into another driveway and they hid behind a van.

This continued for a while, first running and then hiding, several times. As they hid behind a fence, panting, Nell said "there's a pattern to their search. I just can't figure it out."

"A pattern?"

"Yes. They're not looking at random. They know we're on foot. They're searching in sweeps, looking for us. If it weren't for this bracelet I'm sure they'd have found us by now."

"Damn, girl, I knew you were smart but I don't see any pattern."

"I can't be that smart, I can't figure the pattern out. I can't get us out of here."

Robert sucked in his lips as he tried to think of a solution. Nell frowned as she concentrated, pouting slightly.

"We go through the yards," said Robert after a moment.

"What?"

"They're patrolling the streets, right? Well, whenever the coast is clear enough, we jump fences and go through yards."

"Robert, that's brilliant. One problem, this is Palmdale. Fences are cinderblock."

"So? I can make it, and I can lift you over. Only problem is..."

"What?"

"Dogs."

"Oh, never mind that, I've never met a dog that didn't like me."

"I'm serious."

"So am I. Dogs and cats, they like me. Always have. I have neighbors who warn me that their dog is vicious and not to go near it. I walked right up and it rolled over."

"Nell, you're creeping me out now."

They sat there and thought while Nell watched her bracelet. The stones were glowing brighter as a search party passed near, but dimmed again as they passed.

"Sorry about that," said Nell as soon as the search party was gone. "You weren't so creeped out when I got those people out of your head."

"Yeah, sorry."

"So you take care of the fences, and I take care of the dogs."

"Right," said Robert as he started to get up.

"Not yet. They'll be here in another minute."

They waited, and listened as yet another person walked by while the bracelet lit up. As soon as it was dim they made for the back yard. They snuck through the gate and to the back wall of the property.

"All we have to do is hop over enough times to get to a main road" said Robert. "Palmdale Boulevard or some such. Then we can catch a bus and get out of here." He lifted Nell up to the top of the wall. She slid down the other side. Then Robert pulled himself up and pivoted over the wall and jumped down next to her.

They were safely in the next yard. They looked over the assortment of lawn furniture before walking towards the gate that led to the next street.

"I hope that nobody else notices us," said Nell. "I would hate to have to explain to the police that we are on the run from mind controlled slaves."

"It's not exactly slavery, Nell. Not exactly."

"How is it different?"

"Well, he doesn't directly control you."

"He?"

"Yeah. The guy in charge. I kind of remember it. It's more like he adjusts the things you want enough so that you want to work for him. He fiddles with your priorities."

"So instead of being forced to act, you want to help him out? Fascinating. I can see the benefit though. He doesn't have to spend time concentrating on what you are doing, you do that for him. But Mr. Jenkins was able to call people to help."

"Yeah, we're plugged in so that we can communicate with each other. Nothing detailed, but simple things like 'come here' can be communicated. This connection will never replace speaking to each other. I should have known he'd know I wasn't with them anymore though. There's an automatic rapport between people who are in."

Nell peered through the gate. The front lawn had neither fence nor hedge.

"There's no place to hide out front here. And I still haven't figured out the pattern."

"Do you think you could disconnect them like you did me?"

"I still don't know how I did that with you. It was shock, instinct, something. I've read stories about psychic phenomena, but I've never believed it until now. It's not very scientific."

Robert smirked a bit at that, then looked through the gate.

"If we make a run for it, there's an SUV in the driveway across the street we can try to hide behind."

"Yes, but we don't know if they're near-by," protested Nell.

"If we don't move the owner of this house is bound to notice us. I say we take our chances."

Robert opened the gate and crept slowly forward. When he got to the edge of the house he looked both ways on the street.

"It's all clear," he called back to Nell. They walked cautiously towards the street, and then raced across to the next driveway and hid behind the SUV.

"What are we going to do once we get away," asked Robert as soon as they settled down. "I mean, do you have any idea on how you're going to stop them?"

"No, not yet. I need a moment's peace so I can think that through."

Robert peered around the SUV. The street was still vacant so he started to rise but Nell held him back. "Wait."

"What? Are they back?"

"No. Sorry, I just panicked. As far as I can tell it's all clear."

They walked around the side of the house. As soon as they got to the gate a couple of dogs ran up and started barking at them threateningly.

"Nell, you said you can handle dogs."

"Yeah, just let me say hello to them."

Nell walked up and held out her hand. The dogs stopped barking and took turns sniffing her hand. One of them tried to lick her hand through the gate.

"It's clear," she said. "Let's get moving before the goons show up again." They went into the back yard, and there was someone there. An older man wearing shorts and a tee-shirt was watering his lawn.

"Hey, what are you kids doing here!" he yelled out as soon as he saw Nell and Robert.

"Don't mind us, just passing through," yelled Robert as they ran to the back wall followed by the dogs wagging their tails and panting.

"Hey, no!" yelled the man. "You go back out of here!"

Robert lifted Nell up the wall, and then jumped up the wall after her. She was already down on the other side when the man finally reacted by trying to spray them with his hose.

"We made it!" gasped Nell.

"I'm calling the cops!" yelled the old man from inside his yard."

"Come on, let's get out of here," said Robert. "Before the cops show up."

"He's not going to call them," said Nell. "No, look where we are. Across this vacant lot, that's Palmdale Boulevard up there. We made it."

They ran across the lot and to the boulevard. They quickly got their bearings and walked as calmly as they could towards the nearest bus stop.

"Where now?" asked Robert.

"Across town. Far enough away that we can sit and think for a few minutes. And maybe I can go through this bag of stuff I have and see if anything in it can be useful."

"You have more stuff, like that bracelet?"

"Yeah, but I haven't figured out what most of it is yet. Maybe there's an instruction manual in the bag, I don't know."

"So what is that bracelet thing?"

"I guess it's some sort of psychic detector."

They reached the bus stop and sat down next to each other. At the other end of the bench was an elderly black man who took no notice of them.

Nell rummaged through her bag while Robert looked around to make sure that nobody had followed them. After about five minutes of waiting the buss pulled up. Robert paid for both of them and the bus took off towards the east. Although the bus stopped several times, and Robert kept looking around nervously, Nell relaxed because her bracelet had stopped flashing brightly and had resumed the very low glow that it had when she first put it on.

When the bus passed through the round-a-bout Robert stood up, but Nell pulled him back down into his seat. "Let's wait until we get to the Wal-Mart before we get off. We can walk from there to the Denny's and have something to eat. I didn't think about it until now, but I skipped breakfast and I'm starving."

"I did come over a little early," said Robert.

Finally the bus reached its final stop and the remaining passengers disembarked. The walk to Denny's was not a short walk, as it was on the other side of the shopping center from Wal-Mart, but they made it. Once inside they found a booth and sat down.

They ordered breakfast. Robert had already eaten so only had a small meal, but Nell ordered a huge breakfast quite out of proportion to her thin frame. As she was finishing her bacon and pancakes Robert finally couldn't control his curiosity any longer.

"What happened before I arrived? You've dropped a few hints, and there's that freaky bracelet thing you're wearing."

"Oh. It's rather strange."

"After the morning we've had?"

"True. Ok, I had a dream where someone was asking me to help. More like telling me, but he was asking because he had to get me to agree. I thought it was just a dream but when I woke up there was this blue box on my nightstand. Inside it was the bracelet, a bag, and an envelope. The envelope told me the dream was real and told me to go downstairs where I met you at the door."

"Did it say what he wanted you to do?"

"Nope. That's the frustrating part. All it said was I needed to take care of this for him."

"And he didn't sign it?"

"Nope."

"What else have you got in the bag?"

"Well, there's this wallet, but all it has in it are a few sheets of paper. Oh good, another envelope."

"More clues?"

"Let's see. Yes, there's a message. 'Contents: Psychic Paper, Psychic Detector disguised as bracelet.'"

"Psychic Detector?"

"Shut up and let me finish. 'The Psychic Detector works automatically by illuminating in the presence of psychic energy. The Psychic Paper functions as identification, people see the type of identification you describe to them.'"

"That sounds useful. Is that it?"

"Yep. It was a small box."

The waitress came up to them. "Are you all done?"

"Yes, we are, thank you," said Robert.

"Well good. Mr. Jenkins has arrived and he has promised to pick up your check for you. I wouldn't recommend trying to escape though, because he blocked all the exits."

Nell looked down at her bracelet. The stones were glowing serenely.

Chapter Four

Robert almost jumped out of his seat, while Nell simply pressed her forehead into the palm of her hand.

"How did you find us?" asked Nell when she finally looked up again.

"Honestly? Luck. I wasn't part of the search team, but when I saw you walk in I alerted the others. I stayed away from you, just in case, until they got here."

Nell sighed. "Very well. You have us. But we are out in public, so at least we can have a peaceful conversation with fewer threats. Do you really want to create a scene right here in the middle of this restaurant?"

"No, I admit we don't. But with Mr. Jenkins here we can clear this place out, or expand our sphere of influence faster than we originally planned. We're not terribly worried about publicity right now, this is an enclosed restaurant. If you had chosen to meet us in the middle of the Wal-Mart then we might have had a problem."

At that Mr. Jenkins walked over. "That's enough, Carol. We don't want you spilling all our secrets before they join us." He chuckled at his joke, and Carol smiled at him, but Robert and Nell looked grave. Mr. Jenkins sat in an empty chair.

"I must say, that was quite a merry little chase you led us on. With such skill you would be a tremendous asset to our effort."

"Tell me more about your effort then," said Nell. "Don't just try to force us, convincing us would work much better."

"Alright. So what do you think we are doing then? You talk about forcing people, but what are we forcing them to do exactly? And how are we forcing them?"

"I saw what you did to Robert here. He wasn't himself."

"On the contrary, he certainly was himself. He just wanted the same things we wanted."

"That's a pretty insidious form of mind control if you ask me."

"Yes. Perhaps once you are one of us you won't feel that way about it. That's the important thing. Not only do you know a little too much, your demonstrated talents would greatly benefit us."

"I like my free will," said Nell. "On the other hand, I managed to get Robert out of your private club. Perhaps I should do so with the rest of you."

Mr. Jenkins frowned at this. "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that. If it came down to it, do you think you could do that to me? I'm much deeper in this than your friend Robert, I'm one of the managers working directly for Janus. I'm a lot closer to him than our mutual friend was. So perhaps we should see who can get into whose mind first?"

Nell and Robert exchanged glances.

"Sorry, we have all the exits guarded this time," said Mr. Jenkins.

"So you want to pit your mind against mine?" asked Nell. "You're that confident?"

"I am one with Janus. He will be my strength. But first," Mr. Jenkins looked over at the waitress. "Would you like to do the honors?"

The waitress grabbed Robert's face. He tried to struggle and throw her off, but two other people grabbed his arms and held him back. After a moment his look of panic gave way and he looked a lot more peaceful.

"Oh, nice," he said. "I didn't realize how much I missed this. Nell, you really should try it. Just try it and you'll see how nice it really is."

"You're no longer Robert," said Nell.

"Of course I am. I'm just a little bit more than I was before."

"I'll just have to get you out again."

"We can't have that," said Mr. Jenkins. "That's why you're next."

"So which one of you will risk it? I got him out, didn't I?"

The rest of them stepped back at that.

"Stalemate," said Nell.

Mr. Jenkins stood up and started pacing back and forth across the room. "Yes, we have a stalemate. It's too risky to try to convert you, and yet I cannot leave you be."

"Then what are we going to do?"

"This is a puzzle. I have to think about it. We are trying to do something good here, make the world a better place. We don't want to hurt anyone."

"Hurt her?" asked Robert. "But that's not how this is supposed to happen."

"Oh Robert, don't you realize that those who believe in imposing their wills on others always believe in hurting those who don't want to go along with their plans?" Nell sat back and chuckled. "That's the nature of politics in one sentence, even their kind of politics. Those who don't comply must be converted, or eliminated."

"But you can't hurt her," said Robert to Mr. Jenkins. "She's my friend."

"Aren't we also your friends?" he replied. "It's not like we want to hurt her. We really don't. And it would be so much better for everybody if she were to simply agree to join us. Apparently she can resist joining us, so unless she actually agrees to join us then she is a threat. If we convince her, then there will be no problem. She can be one of us. But Robert, that's up to you. If you can convince her then there won't be any problem."

Robert turned to face Nell, a hopeless and pleading look on his face. "Come on Nell, don't be so difficult. It's for the greater good."

"Robert, do you remember that quote?"

"Which one?"

"No matter how noble your goals, no matter how pure your ideals, no matter how good your intentions," she began.

"If you look down and discover you're eating babies, you're no longer the good guy," he finished, looking rather glum. "But we're not like that."

"They're talking about getting rid of me if I won't join them. If they're really that good then they don't need to force anyone, they can just leave me alone."

Robert sighed and walked away. With his back to both Nell and Mr. Jenkins he said "I can't do this. I'm sorry, I can't."

Mr. Jenkins stopped acting so friendly and snapped out orders. "The three of you, bind her. Don't let her touch any of you for too long. If you see her grabbing one of you, try to break the contact before she can do anything to you."

Three of the people near Mr. Jenkins got up. One of them pulled off a scarf and looped it around Nell securing her to the chair she was sitting in. With the scarf tied behind her the other two used the cloth napkins to secure her wrists and ankles. Mr. Jenkins walked up with another napkin.

"I'm really sorry about this Nell. You would have been a brilliant addition to our cause. With you on our side we would have been unstoppable." With that he tied the last napkin around her mouth.

"Ok, we need to carry her out to the van while we figure out what to do with her."

"I don't agree with this," said Robert.

"Then stay out of the way," said Mr. Jenkins. He and the three others lifted the chair. The waitress held the door open for them to all go outside where Nell was dumped in the back of a waiting SUV. Robert followed them out.

"You wait here," said Mr. Jenkins. "We'll take care of this. No, you should go home and relax, you did us a service by alerting us to this potential threat."

"I still don't agree with what you're doing."

"But you see how it is for the greater good?"

"Yes, I can see that."

"Then go home and wait for us to call you. You've done enough for now."

Robert turned and slowly walked away.

"Let's go," said Mr. Jenkins, and the four people got into the SUV.

They drove across the south side of town until they got to the Angeles Forrest Highway and turned into the mountains. As they traveled, Nell struggled against her bonds. She managed to free one hand, and immediately pulled the gag from her mouth.

"Where are you taking me?"

Nobody answered. She untied her other hand, then her feet. She tried to open the rear door of the SUV but it was locked. She thought about waving out the window for help but the few other cars on the road were going in the wrong direction.

Finally they stopped. Everyone got out of the car and they pulled Nell out, pulling on her clothing to avoid touching her as much as possible.

"This really is your last chance, Nell," said Mr. Jenkins. "If you join us now then everything will be fine."

"Not a chance in hell," said Nell.

"Your loss." He looked over the edge down the steep slope by the side of the road. "Ok, throw her over."

Realizing what they intended to do, she struggled as hard as she could. She dropped her bag by the side of the road as they dragged her to the ledge. Two of them forced her over the edge. She turned and looked down and for the first time in her life experienced a sense of vertigo seeing the steep and rocky slope below the edge of the road.

"I'll make you pay for this!" she cried out as the lackeys continued to push her over the edge. "This won't stop me, I'll be back."

"I'm sure you will, Nell. You're full of tricks, aren't you? But by the time you are back, it will be far too late to stop us. Now push her down."

The lackeys pushed and Nell fell over the edge. She tried desperately to grab on to something, but her momentum prevented her from getting a good grip. She slid down the rocky slope, tearing out grasses as she went, scraping herself as she tried to stop. Finally she slowed down and was able to get a grip on the face of the slope.

"What will we do with her bag?" she heard someone above say.

"Take it, we don't know what she has in it," came the answer from Mr. Jenkins.

As she panted, wincing from pain, she heard the four of them get back into the SUV and drive off. She was alone, stuck part way down a mountain slope, unable to climb back up easily and possibly hurt too badly to try, and unable to call anyone for help.

"Well, if someone is watching over me, I hope you can help me now."

Chapter Five

Nell tried to climb the slope, but slid further down as the surface under her gave way. She managed to stop her descent but was still stuck. She couldn't climb back up the slope, and it only got worse further down. After a brief rest to recover from fresh scraping and bruising the looked around for alternate paths out of her situation.

There was no clear path on either side of her, the rocks were just as steep and slippery. The way down was treacherous, and while it did eventually level out there was no guarantee that she would still be alive if she went that way. She checked her pockets, but there wasn't anything useful in them. Her cell phone was in her bag. The only thing she had with her that was at all special was her bracelet.

She closed her eyes and concentrated on the bracelet, not knowing if it would do any good. "Come help me" she muttered as she concentrated.

There was a faint grinding noise from the road. Nell dismissed it as the sound of a distant car. Then, unexpectedly, a scarf dropped down next to her. It was a very long scarf, with broad bands of color, many of them different shades of brown but also there was grey, purple, and green. As soon as the scarf finished unrolling there was that grinding noise again and then there was silence.

Nell reached for the scarf. It seemed to be secured at the top. She pulled harder and it stayed fast on the top. So she swung around on it, braced her feet against the slope, and climbed the scarf to the top. It was slow, because the scarf started to stretch under her weight and because she still had a difficult time gaining secure footing, but eventually she reached the asphalt.

The scarf was tied to the guard rail at the top. Nell turned, pulled the scarf up, and untied it from the railing. Then, under the railing she noticed a small blue box.

With a wary sigh of relief, she opened the box. Inside she found a circlet, something that resembled a flashlight, and another envelope. She opened the envelope, pulled out a letter, and read the message from her mysterious benefactor.

Dear Nell,

This is more help than I thought I would have to give, but fortunately I was paying attention. The stages are getting higher as he gets more powerful. You need to stop him before he takes over your valley.

Enclosed you will find a sonic screwdriver and a psychic amplifier. These will come in quite handy I am sure. You can keep the scarf, I no longer wear it. Who knows, maybe even it will be useful.

Go south and west. There's a pretty good restaurant there, and you can probably call for help from there as well.

Amused, Nell wrapped the scarf around herself. She had to loop it several times because of the length, but she managed to do so. Then she looked around to figure out which way was south, and started walking.

In her tired and battered condition, walking was difficult. She found that she ached in many places, feeling a pull and soreness in muscles she didn't even know she had. She felt increasingly hungry and thirsty as well, hoping that the restaurant would be around the next curve, and feeling a pang of despair every time it wasn't. Only the knowledge that she would eventually get there and she could relax kept her going.

Finally it was there. There was a level spot wide enough to allow for the building of a restaurant. "Restaurant and Bar" read the sign above the front door.

She half-ran across the parking lot and to the front door. Fortunately it was open. She ran in.

"Welcome," said the hostess, and then seeing the state of Nell said "are you alright?"

"I..." Nell started to say, and then thought better of it. "I was hiking," she said. "I was hiking through the mountains, and I fell. I fell pretty far, and I lost my wallet and my cell phone. I think I might have hurt myself in the fall. Please, can I call my dad and let him know where I am?"

"Yes, dearie, come on in and have a seat. I'll bring you a drink of water, and then we can see about calling your dad. Don't you worry about a thing, I'll take care of it."

The hostess, and elderly woman, led Nell to a seat near the entrance and brought here a glass of water. The restaurant was nearly empty. Nell sat and groaned at the relief of being able to relax. She kicked off her shoes, discretely under the table, and sighed again as the cool air washed over her tired feet.

When the hostess returned with the water, Nell was at first too tired to want to lift it, but when she finally did so she remembered just how thirsty she really was. She drank eagerly, the cold water causing a momentary pain in her stomach.

"Now dearie, would you like to call your dad? I'm sure he must be worried."

Nell glanced at her bracelet. All the stones were dark. "Sure, just take me to the phone." When they got there, Nell told the hostess her dad's cell phone number. As soon as the hostess heard a ring she handed the phone to Nell.

A few rings later and the phone was answered. "Hello?"

"Dad, it's me."

"Nell? What's up?"

"Dad, I need you to come get me."

"Where are you?"

After Nell told him the name of the restaurant he gasped "What are you doing way down there? That's almost on the other side of the mountains! It's going to take me over an hour to get there."

"Dad-"

"And how did you get there? You're not supposed to leave town without telling me."

"Dad-"

"Nell, you had better have a good explanation for this."

"Dad I do. Trust me. It's too complicated to explain over the phone. Just come get me."

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can. Just don't go anywhere."

Nell hung up the phone. She knew it would be a while until her father showed up so she decided to look over the new items that she got from the box.

She examined the psychic amplifier. Just as the psychic detector was designed to look like a bracelet, the amplifier was designed to look like a tiara. There were no indicators or controls of any kind, other than some stones that resembled moonstones. The object that looked like a flashlight, described as a sonic screwdriver, had one end that obviously was meant to be the business end. There were some controls on it, but no description included. The examined the box and found a small book on how to use a sonic screwdriver, and decided to read that later.

The hostess returned with a plate with some French fries. "I'm sorry dearie, but this is the best I can do without you paying." With that the hostess left while Nell tried on the amplifier.

At first nothing seemed to happen. She nibbled on a French fry, and that reminded her how hungry she was. She started eating the rest of them, but then she noticed faint whispers all around her.

"So it does do something," she muttered to herself. Focusing on the hostess she got a sensation of pity and grandmotherly concern. That was well enough. She looked around the restaurant and decided that this might be a good time to see if she could reach Robert.

She concentrated on him, thinking of how she freed him from the mind control that he was currently under. At first she felt nothing, then she remembered that it might work better if she concentrated the way she did when she made the stones on her bracelet glow. As she slipped into the trance state she though harder she started to sense something. It was hazy, as if hearing someone talk softly across a room with very bad acoustics, but she was determined to try to make some contact.

Eventually the sound clarified. Nell closed her eyes to shut out distractions. She could almost hear what Robert was thinking.

Then it came into focus. By touching the part of Robert that was not under control, she was able to share what he was experiencing. Robert was in his house, along with Mr. Jenkins and another man. Mr. Jenkins was highly respectful towards this other man, and Robert was in a sort of awe of him. There were other people there as well, but Robert's attention was on this particular individual. He had light skin, black hair, and Nell was startled to see that he had red eyes. Looking at him, even from this distance, made Nell feel very uneasy.

"We are close to completion, my dear friend Allen," said the man with the red eyes.

"Yes indeed, Janus. Everyone has been working hard to try to recruit as many people as we could to try to serve you better."

"But I understand there was some difficulty on this particular unit?"

"It was nothing, Janus. We had a small hitch, but we took care of it."

"Robert, would you care to tell me more?"

Nell felt Robert's excitement as Janus addressed him.

"It was my friend Nell. She could not be made to join us. Mr. Jenkins had her disposed of, and that did make me unhappy."

"Oh dear," said Janus. "I do so hate to waste opportunities like this. Unfortunately what is done is done. Allen, next time you encounter a problem like that, please do not hesitate to contact me. You have made our friend Robert very unhappy, and unhappiness is not what I want for us."

"Oh yes, Janus, I will certainly do better from now on."

"Yes, you will." Even though the tone was friendly, Nell felt there was a threat in those words. Neither Mr. Jenkins nor Robert seemed phased though.

"So on to the next phase. I need to find a place to carry out spreading our blessing to the rest of this valley. Everyone here knows what they need to do, but even with everyone here contributing, I am not sure I have the strength to stretch that far alone. I need a place with residual psychic energy that I can tap in to."

"Well, there is the abandoned church," suggested one of the other people in the room.

"A church? What do you mean by that word. Ah yes, one of those. Yes, it will do nicely."

At that moment Janus looked directly at Robert, and Nell had the feeling that Janus was actually looking at Nell. "Yes, let us all meet at the abandoned church." Nell was so shocked the snapped out of Robert's mind. She gasped for breath, and grasped the table to steady herself. She then took a drink of water.

The door to the restaurant opened, and in walked Nell's father. He did not look happy at seeing Nell in this restaurant and bar in the middle of the mountains.

Chapter Six

Lysander Rothbard had wanted to question his daughter right there in the restaurant, but Nell managed to convince him that would not be appropriate. So Lysander paid for the fries, left a generous tip, and then took Nell out to the car. Almost as soon as they pulled out of the parking lot on the scenic Angeles Crest Highway towards the Angeles Forrest Highway he started in on her.

"Nelly, how did you get out here? You know I don't like you to go out of town without telling me first. And what happened to you, you look terrible."

"Well, dad, the reason I look terrible is because someone threw me over a ledge not too far from that restaurant."

"You were thrown off? Please, be serious. If I can't get a good explanation you're going to be grounded."

"No, seriously. Robert-"

"So Robert's in on this? Why am I not surprised. Somehow or another the two of you are always getting into some mischief."

"Dad, listen to me, this is serious!"

Lysander looked at his daughter, surprised at her tone. "Ok, start from the top."

"It started with a dream I had this morning."

"The dream about mom again?"

"No. This was different. There was a strange man in a blue box, and he was asking me for help. And when I woke up there was a blue box on my nightstand."

"Someone got into our house?"

"That's not the point."

"I think it should be."

"After I opened the box, there was a letter in it asking me for help."

"On the Angeles Crest Highway?"

"No, they didn't give a location. There were a few more notes around the house. Then Robert came over."

"And is that-"

"No it is not. And you're not going to believe what I say next."

"Try me."

"Someone was controlling his mind, but I set him free."

Lysander shook his head, turned from the Angeles Crest Highway onto the Angeles Forrest Highway, and then said "for a moment you had me thinking this might be serious. I can see it is some sort of game you are playing."

"If it is a game, explain this," said Nell. She concentrated and caused the stones on her bracelet to glow. It was much easier to do when wearing the psychic amplifier, it only took a little concentration.

"Um, Nell, what is that?"

"A psychic detector."

Lysander slammed on the breaks, then realizing where he was carefully pulled over on the nearest curb.

"A what?"

"This is a psychic detector. The man in my dream left me this in the first blue box."

"Do you know who this man is?"

"Well, not really."

"And you went ahead and did what he said?"

"I wasn't planning to, but when Robert came over that sort of led me to get involved in this ... this whatever is going on."

"So Robert was being controlled?"

"And I freed him. So we went to confront those who controlled him."

"That's where you went wrong, Nelly. I've told you over and over, don't make a stir, don't call attention to yourself. Something when wrong though, didn't it?"

"Yes. They tried the mind control bit on me, but it didn't work."

"That's convenient."

"And when it didn't work, that's when the dumped me."

"Where's Robert then?"

"He's back at his home talking to the rest of the brainwashed group. Janus' minions."

"Janus' minions?"

"Yeah, I think he's from outer space."

Lysander covered his face with his hand. "Eleanor, I hope this is some sort of elaborate joke you are having at my expense."

That her father was actually taking this seriously, so seriously that he used her proper name, had Nell stunned.

"Then let's go to Robert's house. If I'm making a big joke, you'll know it then."

Lysander pulled back out onto the road and drove back into Palmdale. After several turns he arrived at Robert's house.

"Well, we're here," he said.

"Then come on," said Nell.

They walked up to the front door. Nell rang to doorbell. After a few minutes she knocked on the door, loudly. Again there was no answer.

"But he was here," she protested. "He really was, and so was Janus. I saw it clearly while I was waiting for you at the restaurant."

"You saw it?"

"I was wearing the psychic amplifier at the time."

Lysander grimaced at that.

"You don't believe me?"

"Nelly, you're more like you mother every day."

Nell looked at him curiously.

"So where to now?"

"They mentioned an abandoned church. Do you know of any such place?"

"No, I'm afraid I don't."

"If I had my cell phone I could try to call Robert," muttered Nell.

"You don't have your cell phone? Where is it?"

"It's in my bag. Janus's followers took my bag with them because they weren't sure if I had anything else useful in it and they didn't want me to be able to use it."

"That's great!" Lysander sounded actually pleased with the news.

"How so?"

"I haven't told you this, but there is a tracker in your phone. I can find you anywhere as long as you have your phone with you, and if it's not with you then I can at least find your phone."

"You had me bugged?" Nell couldn't believe it.

"No, only tracked. I only did it for your own safety. Don't look at me like that, this is a dangerous world we live in. I haven't used it, but I have the tracker at home."

"Sometimes I think you're paranoid, dad."

"It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you."

"And who is out to get you?"

"Nobody right now, but that's because we keep a low profile. Now someone is out to get you. Home, back in the car Nell."

As quickly as he could, Lysander drove them home. Once they got there he surprised Nell by reaching into an air vent and pulling out a small box.

"I never wanted you to know about this," he said as he opened the box. He pulled out a small device and put the box back into the air vent. "This will locate your cell phone, in terms of both magnitude and direction. We will find this 'ruined church' you apparently heard about. Mind, if your phone is at some friend's house because of some big joke you will be in big trouble, lady."

"You still don't believe me?"

"Let's just say that I'm suspending my judgment until I have all the facts."

The device looked rather similar to a smart phone. Lysander turned it on. After entering some data on the touch pad the image resolved.

"There, I've found your cell phone. It is twenty five miles away right now, and moving. There is an abandoned church close to their current trajectory."

"You can tell all that from that smart phone?"

"This isn't an ordinary smart phone. Now, back to the car, Nell. We're going to go get your cell phone back from whoever has it. If this isn't a joke, then I'll do whatever I can to help you."

"Wait," said Nell. "I need to grab a hat."

"You're worried about fashion?"

"No, I just want to cover this up." She pointed to the psychic amplifier. "I don't want to give away that I have it unless I have to."

Nell went upstairs to grab a hat. She returned wearing a brown fedora. Lysander chuckled at it and they left to find the phone.

They had to drive slower through town. Finally they escaped the downtown area and drove straight towards the ruined church.

"Slow down," said Nell. "I think we're getting near it."

"We are," said her dad. "That's what my smart phone says. I think I should slow down a little so that we don't miss it."

As they pulled closer they saw a crowd of people near the normally deserted church ruins. Lysander glanced at the smart phone and saw that the cell phone was in the crowd, and he stepped on the accelerator and quickly passed the church.

"Dad, what are you doing? That's the place."

"I know. We're not stopping there, we're going to loop around and stop a safe distance away. Then we can walk up to them and sneak up on them. I don't want them to notice us."

"That's actually a pretty good idea."

"I know more than a little about sneaking into places. It comes with being a reporter."

"But you report on economics."

"Yeah? It's even more important there. Those paparazzi who stalk celebrities have it easy compared to us."

"You're putting me on."

"If I am, then learn. It's important to always have a good cover story, a respectable identity that you can always rely on."

"Because you're an economics journalist?"

"Yes, and leave it at that for now."

"And yet you won't trust me when I tell you something crazy."

Lysander grinned as he turned so that he could loop back around and get back to the church. When he was close enough that the walk wouldn't be too far, but distant enough to feel safe, he turned off the lights, pulled over, and stopped the car.

"This is awfully far," said Nell.

"Not that far. Safety first, always," responded Lysander.

Slowly, in the dimming light, the two of them crept towards the ruined church. There were definitely people standing around it, but there were no patrols being kept around the building. Lysander was about to move forward when Nell held him back.

"They can see you there," she whispered.

"How can you tell?"

"Look where they're standing. They are there for optimal view."

"Then we take out the sentry."

"No, they can communicate with each other faster than we can take them out. If one of them sees us then they all see us."

"Then how are we going to get any closer?"

Nell thought about that. There didn't seem to be any obvious solution to the problem. If they got any closer they would be spotted. She didn't want her father taken by them the way Robert was, and she wasn't sure she could protect both of them against Janus himself. She was sure Janus had seen her through Robert's eyes.

"If only the man in the box had left me some kind of cloaking technology," she muttered.

"Don't concentrate on what you don't have, concentrate on what you do."

Again Nell tried to find a way through this, and again she could not.

"I'm sorry dad," she said, trying to not cry. "I can't solve this riddle. There's no way through that I can see."

"Yes, I think you're right. Well, that only leaves one option."

"But we can't give up!"

"I didn't say give up. If we can't sneak in, and we have to go in, then the only thing left to do is just walk up and get captured so they can take us in."

Nell gasped. "Dad, that's genius. I'll have to let them capture me."

"Capture us," corrected Lysander.

"No dad, capture me."

"I'm not letting you go in there alone."

"You have to. I can protect myself, but if they take over you then they'll make me fight you. I can't do that. They'll know I can't do that. You have to stay here for both our sakes."

"And if you can't protect yourself?"

"Then it doesn't matter anyway, we're already lost. I have to do this alone. If you come along it will only make it even harder for me. If you want to give me the best chance to do this, then you have to stay here where it is safe and let me face Janus all by myself. Besides, I think that if I went in alone, there's a chance they won't capture me. They might not even notice me, or they might roll out the red carpet. This whole time I was trying to figure out how to get you in as well, but when you told me to let them capture us I realized that I was wrong. You have to stay here."

"You are so much like your mother," muttered Lysander. "Ok, little girl, you go ahead. I'll be here if you need me though."

Chapter Seven

Feeling a lot braver than she felt, Nell stood up and walked towards the ruined church. Not sure exactly what she was doing, she concentrated on the words "do not notice me" over and over as she walked closer to the ruined church. As she walked past the first outer guard she wasn't sure if he was aware of her nor not. Encouraged by the fact that he took no notice of her she continued walking until she got to the entrance of the abandoned church.

At that point the guard looked directly at her and said "Go right inside. Janus bids you welcome."

Shocked, Nell almost collapsed. She took a tentative step forward and stepped into the building. As she did so she felt an immense feeling of pressure surround her. It wasn't a physical sensation. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to clear her thoughts, then opened them and stepped forward again.

There were fifteen people in the room. At the far end, with his back to her, was Janus. Nobody moved as Nell approached. When she got to the middle of the room Janus finally spoke.

"That's far enough, Nell."

Nell stopped walking and stood in the middle of the room. All eyes were on her.

"You should know that at this point you cannot stop us."

"I have to try."

"Nell, there is no need for us to fight. We could indeed be friends. With your proven abilities, you could be a tremendous asset to our cause. And you would be very important in our movement, perhaps second only to me. You could help rule by my side."

"Very generous, especially after you tried to have me thrown off a cliff."

"That was regrettable," said Janus."

"I'm sure you say that now."

"No, really, it is. And Mr. Jenkins has been disciplined for what he did to you. I do so hate hurting people, especially when it is not necessary.

"I'm not a bad man, Nell. I'm trying to bring peace to this troubled planet. And you can help me with that. If you are as special as I think you are you could rule by my side as my queen."

"By taking over. No thanks. So what are you doing?"

"My great work. That is all you need to know."

"You're trying to build up enough energy to take over."

"How perceptive."

"And you're not there yet."

"I will be soon. Each person I reach out to increases my power, even if is only by a small amount the cumulative effect is enormous."

"Why are these people here? Surely you don't need them for this."

"Oh, but I do. What I am planning will take a great deal of energy. This location provides a great deal of it, but I need them to help me tap it."

"You need them- you're planning on draining them. You're going to drain this place and these people."

"Regrettably yes. Although I hate to hurt any of my people, they are quite willing to make the sacrifice for this noble cause. They will die knowing that what they do will bring peace to this world."

"So if I free them you won't be able to tap into their energy. You won't have enough to take over."

"I wouldn't try that if I were you." At that Janus turned around to look at Nell. He was about to say something else but then he started as he looked at her.

"Where did you get that scarf!" he demanded, his voice harsh and his poise broken for the first time.

"What, this old thing?"

"Who gave it to you?"

"Why does it matter?"

"It probably doesn't matter. It is probably a coincidence."

"It's probably also a coincidence that it came from a mysterious man with a blue box."

"That does it. Seize her."

It was as if four of the followers of Janus came to life as they went from completely still to active movement. Two of them grabbed each of Nell's arms, and held them slightly behind her. Although Nell tried to kick nobody was easily in range until she was forced down to her knees. Once she stopped struggling Janus walked up close to her.

"I'm really sorry it had to come to this," he said.

"What are you going to do, kill me?"

"Of course not. But I do need you neutralized. Robert, come over here."

Previously unnoticed, Robert walked over and stood next to Janus.

"This one is special to you, isn't he? Here, as a token of my good will I will release him. I will release him on the condition that you stop fighting me. You can leave now, walk out of here, go in peace."

"I don't believe you."

Janus glanced at Robert, and Robert gasped and staggered. "Nell!" he cried. "Oh God, they got me again, didn't then?"

"Yes, they did."

"Where are we?" Robert looked around. "Hey, let her go."

"Stay where you are," said Janus. Robert froze.

"I thought you said you were freeing him from your control."

"If you look for yourself, you will find I am not in his mind anymore. His will is free, from your point of view. All I did was restrain him from interfering."

Nell tried to pull away from those holding her. They were gripping her so tightly she couldn't escape, but in the struggle her hat fell off. Janus saw the psychic amplifier. His eyes widened.

"Let her go," said Janus. The four people holding her released her and walked back to the perimeter. Nell got up off of her knees and stood to face Janus.

"That is, if I perceive it correctly, a psychic amplifier?"

"What do you think?"

"Your species does not have that technology yet. Give it to me."

"Come and take it."

Janus reached out and grabbed Nell by the hair. Robert, forgotten, grabbed Janus and started trying to pull Janus off of Nell. "Oh no you don't, not her!"

"Stay back, Robert, I've got this," said Nell.

"I'm sure you think you do," said Janus.

"I said back off Robert."

Robert backed off, looking doubtful, but did as Nell said.

"Now, I will take care of you," said Nell.

Nell's open defiance gave Janus a moment of doubt, but he acted. Unsure, he decided to raise the stakes. He stared directly into her eyes and said "You will be mine."

Nell tried to pull away, but the combined mental and physical assault was too much.

"It is futile to resist. I have touched too many people, my power has grown too strong.

Nell felt everything around her going dark. The only thing she saw were Janus's eyes glowing red as everything else got darker and darker around her.

"Nell dear, wake up," came the soft feminine voice. Nell rolled over on her bed, opened her eyes, and looked up at the speaker.

"Mom?" she gasped, and jumped out of bed and embraced her mom. "Oh mom, it's really you."

"Yes, of course," said Wendy. "What's wrong Nell? You act like you haven't seen me in, well, forever."

Nell released Wendy. Breathing deeply, she looked her over as if in disbelief. "I guess it was just a bad dream."

"Then that's alright then. It's time to get up and go to school. Your dad already has breakfast prepared and is waiting for us."

Nell got up, feeling a little disoriented. But she got dressed and came down the stairs to see the table laid out for the three of them.

"So what are you doing today?" Wendy asked Lysander.

"Just tracking the price of commodities today, trying to forecast which way the economy will turn. And you dear?"

"Trying to get our program into the air. I think we're finally going to get safety approval to fly soon. Nell, what time will rehearsal start this evening?"

"Rehearsal is at seven," Nell heard herself saying. But what was she rehearsing for? She couldn't remember.

"Eat, Nell. You seem so distracted, and Robert will be here soon to take you to school."

It was her favorite breakfast, Seattle Dutch Babies, a type of scrambled eggs with butter and powdered sugar. She ate with delight.

"Wow, that was delicious," she said wiping her mouth with a napkin.

"I'm glad you're feeling better now," said Wendy. "Is that Robert coming up the front walk? Time for school."

Robert opened the door and walked in. "Ready for school, Nell?"

"Just let me get my bag," she said. She picked up her backpack, and underneath it saw a strange blue box.

"Where did that box come from?"

"What box?" asked Robert, looking confused.

"This one," said Nell, picking up the box. It was small and blue. She opened it, but there was nothing inside the box. "I don't remember this."

"It's just a box, Nell. Come on, we're going to be late."

The ride to school was pleasant, with very little traffic. The temperature was such that they could open the windows and enjoy the fine weather. School was delightful all day long, with only one problem. Every so often she saw a small blue box that nobody else seemed to notice.

At the end of the school day, Robert drove her back home. By then, although it had been a perfect day, she was troubled.

"What's wrong Nell?"

"I don't know. Everything is so great, but I feel like I'm missing something. It's like there's something right in front of my eyes that I'm not seeing."

"If you figure it out then let me know. I'll be back later for rehearsal."

Nell stepped out of the car, happy but worried. Then she saw it. Right there on her front step was another blue box. She picked it up, opened it, but it was empty like the one from that morning. She carried it with her when she went inside.

"Mom, what was in this box?" she called out when she came in.

"What box?" called her mom from the kitchen.

"This blue box on the front porch."

"Nell, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Chapter Eight

"Excuse me, I have to go up to my room," said Nell.

"What's the matter sweetie?" asked Wendy.

"I'm actually a little tired now, I think I need to lie down."

"Ok, I'll call you when dinner is ready."

Nell went upstairs into her bedroom and looked around. There, on the bookshelf, was a photo album. She opened it and found pictures of her mom, her dad, and herself. Still, they failed to stir much in her, as if she was looking at photographs of someone else even though she recognized the faces. She put the photo album back on the shelf.

"I'm still not seeing it," she sighed as she sat on the bed. She looked at her nightstand. There was a blue box there that had not been there before. Curious she picked it up and shook it. There was a rattle inside it. So she opened it and saw that it was empty. She closed it again, shook it again, and again there was a rattle from inside the box.

"This doesn't make sense. There's no false bottom to the box."

At this point Lysander knocked on the door. "Nelly, can I come in?"

"Sure dad."

Lysander opened the door and walked in. "Mom said you needed to lie down. Is there something on your mind that you need to talk about?"

"It's just that something eels wrong. I don't know what it is. And then there are these blue boxes all over the place. Every time I think everything is fine I see another one and it makes me feel all weird again."

"Blue boxes?"

"Yeah, like this one." Nell held up the box in her lap.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't you see it?"

"See what?"

"This blue box. Dad, I'm holding a blue box."

Lysander looked confused. "Oh that box. I see. What's so special about it?"

"You didn't see it a moment ago?"

"I wasn't paying attention I guess."

"How could you not see it when I was holding it and showing it to you?"

"Calm down, I'm sure it's nothing important. Maybe your imagination is playing tricks on you, since you did say you were tired. I don't know why you would think such a shabby old box would be so important."

"But they were everywhere today."

"I'm sure they were sweetie."

"You sound like you don't believe me."

"I believe this has upset you."

"You've never talked to me this way before. You take me very seriously."

"I am taking you seriously, but you're tired. Why don't you lie down for a while. Robert will be here in a few hours to take you to rehearsal."

"Ok dad."

"Here, let me throw away that blue box for you."

"No, I want to keep it."

"Why, sweetie?"

"I just want to. When did you start calling me sweetie instead of Nelly?"

"If it means that much I'll call you Nelly from now on."

Lysander got up and left the room, leaving Nell feeling puzzled. She pulled a book off the shelf at random and opened it, and saw that it was the Wizard of Oz. She noted how different the ending is from the movie ending. In the book the whole trip to Oz was real while in the movie it was only a dream.

"Only a dream," she muttered, feeling a nagging feeling. She opened up the blue box and put the book into it.

She went down the stairs to the living room and turned on the television. It was part of the way through the movie "Labyrinth" but since Nell enjoyed that movie she decided it was worth watching as she tried to figure out what she was thinking.

The scene was when the character Sarah ate the magical peach and was transported to a fantasy masked ball. The musical number, featuring David Bowie's singing, highlighted the surreal and unrealistic nature of the ball, accenting the dreamy cinematography. This, and then the following scene in the junkyard, rather than calming Nell, made her even more uncomfortable.

"Nelly, time for dinner," called Lysander.

"Coming dad," said Nell.

Dinner was quite good, but Nell was somewhat tuned out trying to figure out what was bothering her. Then came dessert, which was peach pie.

"I hope this doesn't throw me into a dreamland," muttered Nell as she had a slice.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Lysander, frowning.

"Nothing, I was just watching Labyrinth and it was the scene where after eating a peach Sarah gets sent through a dream sequence."

"I'm sure this pie won't send you anywhere," laughed Wendy. "Go ahead Nell, have a slice. You've been so distracted all afternoon, what did you do in school today?"

"Well, in AP English we were discussing DesCartes." Nell was surprised to hear herself say that.

"Really?"

"Yeah, Discourse on Method. We took the downhill trip today, where he started by doubting his senses, and ended with the inability to doubt mathematics but with the ability to ponder it being doubtable, until he finally reached his famous conclusion of Cogito Ergo Sum."

"Pity that," said Lysander. "Too many people stop there. He went on in the second half to prove that everything was real after all."

"My homework tonight is to read the second half."

There was a knock at the door.

"That must be Robert. Go ahead, you'll be late for rehearsal, you've only got three more weeks."

"Yeah, I was surprised that they picked me to play Alice, what with me not being blonde, but they said I was perfect for the part. And then she wakes up in the end and discovers it was all a dream."

"That's Lewis Carroll for you."

"All a dream," mused Nell. The door knocked again, so Nell got up and answered it. Robert was there, of course, and he gave her a hug.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"When did you start hugging me?"

"What? Sorry."

"That's it. It was all a dream."

"What was?" asked Robert.

"All of this. This is a dream." And everything started going black. The next thing she knew she was in a spotlight in a dark room.

"Where am I?" she asked. She couldn't see anything in the thick darkness around her. She reached up to her head and found she wasn't wearing the amplifier anymore. She gasped.

"So now I have you," said a voice. It was Janus. Nell looked around for the source of the voice, and saw him in a similar pool of light that she could swear wasn't there a moment ago.

"Where are we?"

"My home." Janus sat down in a chair in his spotlight that wasn't there just a moment ago. "I figured that fighting you on your home world would be too time consuming, too distracting, so I brought us here."

Nell looked around, scared.

"This is my domain, this is my home, inside the mind. Here you do not have your fancy toys, here I can defeat you. This is not the first time I've found someone with the strength to resist me. Your little toy obviously boosted your natural abilities, but here I am the master."

As Janus spoke, his pool of light grew. Nell saw her own pool was diminishing.

"And when I have finished with you, I will take over your planet, like I have done others before it."

"How did we get here?"

"I brought us here. Once I touched your mind, I brought us back to the real of the mind where I am supreme."

"This is all in the mind?"

Janus laughed. "Of course it is. Is there anything more important?"

Nell looked curiously at Janus. "So our bodies are back on Earth?"

"Of course."

At this Nell's spot of light started to grow and Janus's spot of light started to shrink.

"I understand. You are not actually from the physical universe at all."

"How would you know of course I am not."

"When you touched my mind the contact is two directional."

"You still cannot resist without your amplifier."

"Which I am still wearing so I can still use it. I see why my scarf scared you."

"No I refuse to allow this contact to continue."

"I see who my secret benefactor is. Now I understand why you were so scared."

Nell's spot of light had grown considerably by this time, and Janus finally noticed it. He looked visibly nervous at this.

"This cannot be happening nobody has ever resisted me like this before."

"Except for my benefactor, who defeated you right before you came to my planet."

"But I see a problem. You should not want to defeat me now for I can see something about you that you are not aware of. If you banish me you will find that I can still cause trouble for you."

"I will deal with that when it comes to it. For now, you leave."

Janus' light contracted and dimmed. Janus tried to scream out but all that came was a soft cry of "you will regret this" before his light went out. Nell looked around her large pool of light and willed it brighter. Then she willed herself home.

She opened her eyes. She was lying on the ground of the ruined church. Robert was at her side, kneeling down, a look of anxious concern on his face.

"Where's Janus?" Nell asked weakly.

"He, he disappeared. I don't know where he is."

The memories came back to Nell as they do to a person waking up. "I know where he is. Help me up."

Robert helped Nell stand. "So where is he?"

"He's gone."

"You killed him?"

"No, I sent him home. He never really existed here, his body was nothing more than a psychic projection."

Nell looked around at the other followers of Janus. They were lying on the ground as well but showed some signs of waking.

"I think we had better get out of here before we have to answer any awkward questions," Nell said, gesturing to the exit.

"Yeah, I think you're right. Where will we go?"

"My dad is waiting outside for us. Is your car still parked at Mr. Jenkins' house?"

"I'm not sure. Can you help me remember?"

Nell reached up to her head and took off the psychic amplifier. "I'm afraid this thing is burned out. I'll do what I can, but I think we're left with more mundane methods of searching for a while."

They heard one of the followers of Janus roll over and groan.

"Come on," said Robert, and led Nell out of the ruined church.

Chapter Nine

After a good night's sleep, Nell, Lysander, and Robert set out again. Robert came over the next morning and told Nell that he had remembered that he had indeed found Janus' space ship, and Lysander wanted to get it as quickly as possible before anyone else got to it.

"This sort of stuff really is NOT supposed to happen here," he said. "I can't explain why, you'll just have to trust me. But what happened yesterday, it is supposed to happen anywhere else but here."

"Why not here?" asked Robert.

"It's complicated," said Lysander as he drove across town to get to the other side of the valley.

"Mr. Rothbard, after what I saw last night, I'd believe just about anything you tell me. So try me, why shouldn't this happen here."

"Because this is the Antelope Valley. Nothing important ever happens here. Or at least it shouldn't. That's why we decided to settle here."

"You mean the event horizon?"

"The what?"

"The joke is there is an event horizon around the valley. The longer you stay here the harder it is to get out. If you were born here you can't escape. If you've been here for ten years it's almost as strong. If you do escape you'll move back here for some reason. Something will call you back. Nobody escapes the Antelope Valley."

"Don't be absurd. People have moved out of here before."

"Yes, but it isn't easy."

Nell raised an eyebrow at this. "You've never talked about this."

"Oh, sorry Nell. Yeah, that's what people say about this place. Some people say that's why they put the jail in the AV, to keep them here even after they get out. I suspect that the epicenter is the Palmdale Roundabout. It's been rumored that entire semis have disappeared there."

Lysander frowned for a moment, then he saw that Robert was chuckling at the joke. "All right Robert, that's enough fun. So where is this UFO? We've got to get there before anyone else does."

"Oh don't worry about that. He put some sort of camouflage on it. It looks like a boulder, not even a meteor. Even if people are still looking for it they probably won't find it."

"Well then let us hope the cloak holds. So which way now?"

"Keep going east. It's in the desert, past the farms. Really empty place, mostly desert rats live there. Just a few more miles."

As they passed the farms and entered the more empty sections of the Antelope Valley, Robert had to start directing Lysander towards where he and other investigators had been searching when they had all met Janus. Finally they pulled over on a dirt road.

"Right here, Mr. Rothbard," said Robert. "Now we have to walk. It won't take that long to get there."

The walk didn't take that long, but just as they were cresting a hill Lysander's smartphone started alarming wildly. "Down," he called out as he dived to the ground. He silenced the alarm, and crept up to the top of the hill. Just over the ridge, surrounding the camouflaged ship, were a dozen men in dark suits and sunglasses. In the middle was a smaller man wearing a grey suit, sitting on a rock and looking bored. One of the men in the black suits turned to face where Nell, Robert, and Lysander were hiding. He started walking towards them, and the others quickly fell in behind him. This roused the man in the grey suit, who called one of the black suits back to him.

Nell couldn't hear the conversation from where she was at, but she heard her dad scramble back down the hill a short distance. "Uh-oh, I was afraid of this. When I give the word, we have to run back to the car."

Lysander paused for a few seconds and readied himself, looked over his shoulder, and then said "run!"

The three of them ran down the hill and across the desert. When they were half way towards the car they saw the men in the black suits cresting the hill. The suits spotted the three of them and started running after them, faster than seemed possible. By the time Nell, Robert, and Lysander were in the car the gap had closed to less than twenty yards. Lysander started the engine and the car shot forward leaving the men in the suits behind.

"I hope they can't track this, they shouldn't be able to," panted Lysander.

"Dad, what's going on?"

"It's complicated."

"I told you everything when I was fighting Janus. You owe us an explanation. Are you in some sort of trouble with the law? Is that why you're always telling me to keep a low profile, why you are so obsessed with secrecy and security?"

"Can I talk about this once we get home? I want to make sure we're safe first."

"What do you think Robert?"

"I can wait until we get to your house."

"Oh no, this is for Nell's ears alone."

"No it isn't, dad. Robert's a part of this."

Lysander frowned.

"Mr. Rothbard, I was there when Nell beat Janus. I know she's special. I'm not going to say anything, it's my secret."

"I trust him, dad. I had to trust you, now you trust him."

"Very well, once we get home."

The rest of the drive was conducted in awkward silence. It wasn't until they were all sitting in the living room that the conversation resumed.

"So, dad, what's up? Are you some sort of criminal?"

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to tell you this, at least not for a while yet, but yes."

"Wow," said Robert. "What did you do?"

"Political activism."

"Come on, dad, spill it."

"Your mom and I are political activists. Were. Um, I'm not sure what the correct word is. Anyway, we faced a tyranny. And then they decided we were a problem that needed to be eliminated. So we had to go into hiding."

"Cool," said Robert. "Where are you from? I always thought you had a funny accent, but I could never figure out where you were from."

"Robert, I think I know this one," said Nell in a very quiet voice.

Lysander nodded at her.

"It's those dreams I had, right? When I dream of mom?"

"Yes, Nell."

"And that's why you worried about those dreams?"

"What are you talking about?"

"We're talking about the future," said Lysander. "What disturbs me is that you shouldn't know anything about that, Nell. You were conceived there, but you were born here."

"Wait, how did you get here?"

"We managed to steal a vortex manipulator from a time agent."

"What's that?"

"A time jumper. A way to travel through time."

"Oooh," said Nell. "Can I see it?"

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt now," said Lysander. He went to the air vent and pulled out the secret box from which he had grabbed the smart phone. He opened it and dumped it on the table. He picked up a wristband.

"This is a vortex manipulator. We burned out the part that travels through time, it is only supposed to be used by one person and your mom and I were both riding it at once. Everything else on it works."

"Let me try," said Nell, reaching for it.

"No," said Lysander, pulling it back. "We're safe as long as it is turned off. Those guys we ran from can detect the use of out of place technology. That's why they were at Janus' ship."

"What about your smart phone?"

"You notice that I turned it off right away."

"So it's not just a smart phone?"

"Nope. It's a computer. It's a dumb computer, but it is still more powerful than any other computer you will ever see. I used it to do a search and found that there are two others that are more powerful. I never followed up on it."

"Do you think they know about you?"

"They probably know about this computer. They've never initiated contact. They probably want privacy as much as we do."

"Wow, a future computer," said Robert.

"What do you mean by 'dumb'?"

"It doesn't have a fluid verbal interface, it doesn't have a personality. It can interface verbally if you speak very precisely, but it is still easier to manually enter your commands. Fortunately your mom was able to disguise it as a smart phone, down to the interface. I was the political activist, she was an engineer. She knew how to operate the vortex manipulator, and was working on fixing it before she died. You get your stubborn streak from me, but you get your genius from her. And you look so much like her."

"What did your mom die from?" asked Robert.

"Dad told me it was the flu."

"Yes, the flu. A stupid, primitive disease. She wasn't prepared for it."

"Ok, well, now that I know what's going on, we can figure out what to do about it," said Nell. "So those guys in suits are also time agents?"

"Special ops. Time agents police violations of time. Special ops do special government assignments that would be illegal if done by anyone else. That's the way it always is, actions that would be illegal are legal when performed by the government."

"But why here?" asked Robert.

"Because what happened yesterday, and what happened today, don't happen here. The Antelope Valley is what is called a 'Null Zone.' Nothing important ever happens in a Null Zone. That's why we hid here."

"But Janus landed here," said Nell.

"I know. That shouldn't have happened. And now somehow they found us, which also shouldn't have happened. This simply shouldn't happen. We should have been safe here."

"Time special ops then," said Nell, changing the subject. "So they shouldn't be here, but they are. What are we going to do about it? How are we going to get rid of them?"

"That won't be easy," said Lysander. "And we can't use any of this, or they can track us."

"I wish I still had my psychic amplifier."

"Oh that wouldn't be any good. Those are robots."

"All of them?" asked Robert.

"Just the ones in black. The special ops always send a real human along, he was the one in grey. Neutralize him and the robots will simply return to the agency, but then they'll know we're here and send more."

Nell frowned at this. "There has to be a solution to this. Just give me a moment."

"Just like your mother," muttered Lysander.

Chapter Ten

Robert was nervous, but approached the temporal special ops team as if it were the most normal thing he could have done. The vortex manipulator on his wrist felt unusually heavy to him, and that one of the lights was flashing was a worry, but he knew what he had to do.

He had parked his own vehicle on the dirt road, and was walking on foot to the same hill. He didn't even know if the special ops team was still there, or what he could say that would actually fool them, but knew he had to try. He decided to walk around it instead of straight over it, just to make himself look a little different.

As soon as he was on the level ground and able to see the disguised ship, he also saw that the black suited robots were marching purposefully towards him.

"Identify yourself," said the lead robot. He looked very human, except that he looked perhaps a too well groomed. His black suit did look out of place in the desert, and there was dust covering his shoes and the cuff of his pants.

"Oh, you," said Robert, sounding annoyed. "Take me to your boss. I'm with the Time Agency, and he is interfering with my investigation."

If the robot was at all startled it made no sign of it. He simply turned and led Robert back to the boulder where the man in the grey suit was. He was sitting on a collapsible stool near the boulder, looking at it curiously.

"And just who are you?" he said irritably.

"You're special ops," said Robert. "What are you doing here? Was there some change to my assignment?"

"What?" said the man in the grey suit.

Robert held up the psychic paper. "Andrew Jackson, time agent, forty ninth century."

The man in the grey suit looked at the paper for a moment, looked at the vortex manipulator on his wrist, and then held up his own identification. Robert took it and looked at it. "Dandruff?"

"That's Dandrough! Can't you read?"

"Calm down. Derrick Dandrough. I'm here to investigate some anomalous readings regarding this location, temporal disturbances. Who would have guessed that it would be our own agency creating those disturbances with yet another secret special ops mission."

"You watch it cop. You go take care of the piddling little stuff, I'm here on a real mission."

"Since I'm here already, then I should assist you since you are so big and important compared to us. We only have to clean up all sorts of temporal ripples created when you stomp all over the timeline."

It appeared that was more than enough to establish Robert's identity as Agent Andrew Jackson. Derrick stood up, brushed off his suit, and said "No, you can't help. You time cops aren't qualified for this sort of work."

"We had a bad start," said Robert. "We should work together, we do work for the same agency. Are you searching for a criminal? Temporal crimes would explain the anomalies we detected."

"Yes, a very dangerous and subversive criminal. And I suppose it would not be bad to have you assist in my assignment. You will stay out of the way at appropriate moments, and I will alert you if there are any unavoidable temporal disturbances you can help clean up."

"I'm honored," said Robert dryly. "So tell me about your target."

"I'm looking for a terrorist who escaped to this time."

"Maybe I can help find him. How did he get here?"

"By a stolen vortex manipulator. If his was turned on we could track it. Alpha, scan his vortex manipulator."

One of the robots walked over and did a quick glance at the vortex manipulator. "This unit does not match the one stolen by the terrorist," he said. Robert felt himself relax slightly at that. Mr. Rothbard had told him that the identification matrix had been hacked by his wife and reset to make it harder to trace.

"Good," said Derrick. "I thought we spotted him the other day, and you have a passing resemblance to one of the two kids he had with them. Do you know the kids?"

"I still don't know the person you're looking for."

"His name is Leonidas Rothbard. He and his wife jumped back to this general vicinity. It is my job to bring them back, one way or another."

"There is one think I can do for you right now," said Robert. "You look like you've been here for a few days. Perhaps more comfortable accommodations can be arranged. I have a vehicle from this era that can take you into the nearest town. I cannot do the same for your crew, it is a small transport, but they can walk."

"Oh, good. I would enjoy some fresh food and water. Survival rations are so boring."

"This way."

Robert led Derrick around the hill and back to his car. "I have a contemporary vehicle. Here it is."

"Fascinating. Yes, there's not enough room in it for my support robots. Two of them must come with me, but I suppose the rest could walk."

"You might want to wait until night. Their appearance is not inconspicuous."

"This is on file as contemporary garb."

"It is in the cities. We are not in the cities. People do not generally walk long distances in the desert wearing dark suits."

"Yes, I understand. You will have to ferry the rest of my unit in to town for me."

"No, I have better things to do with my time than that." Robert opened the passenger doors. "I'll provide transportation for you and two of your unit. Once you establish a working location then we can begin searching for these fugitives."

Once they were all in the car, Robert was about to start the car when he stopped and said "you have to pull the doors closed manually." Then, once the other three doors were closed, he started the engine.

The drive into town was quiet and awkward. Robert didn't want to say anything that would give him away, the two robots were silent, and Derrick was busy trying to look like this whole routine bored him.

"Here we are," said Robert. "There aren't that many hotels in town, but this one is close to a few restaurants. This city is called 'Lancaster' and since most business travelers stop at this hotel your suits won't look so strange."

"You time cops are useful for something after all."

"No problem, dandruff. So, you want to give me some way to identify this guy?"

"No, I want to rest. You come visit me later."

Agent Dandrough got out of the car, and so did the two robots traveling with him. Robert pulled away and drove home. When he got there he found Nell waiting for him.

"Trust me, dad says this is the most secure method of communication," she said. "They can probably tap into the phone or the internet, but if we write to each other or if I relay messages back and forth that will be very hard to track."

"Well, I met him, and he is at a hotel. He's a bit of a jerk, but he doesn't seem to suspect that I'm not what I say I am."

"Good. Now that we know exactly where he is and what he is doing, we have to figure out what to do about him. Dad says the best case is to convince him we're not here, but if he got this far he knows we're somewhere around here. So we have to find a way to nullify him and make it look natural."

"Do you have any ideas?" asked Robert. "Seriously, it's going to take everything I have just to play my part. He doesn't expect me until tomorrow, so we have time to plan."

"Well, the last thing we want is for him to see dad. If he gets a positive identification then the whole special ops will know he's here."

"It will be up to you and me then?"

"Yep. And I can't even use that computer dad brought, he says they can detect any tech that's out of place."

"Makes sense why they were at the spaceship then. That's out of place. They're away from it right now, but I don't think we should go get it until we've finished with this problem."

"We have to make him want to leave, I think. Or no, we should find a way to convince him that dad moved on to another time."

"Wait, not just your dad. He's also looking for your mom."

"Oh yeah. She died shortly after I was born. I never really knew her. I don't know how we can convince them that she's moved on too."

"Maybe after she died he decided to move on?"

"He wouldn't know how. She was the engineer. Dad says she's where I get my brains from. I think she was psychic too, maybe that's how I remember the future from her. He's really stuck without her."

"He called your dad 'Leonidas.' Does that mean anything to you?"

"Ancient freedom fighter, a code name my dad used. He explained it to me last night."

Robert looked out the window. "Oh crap, my parents are coming home now. They don't know about any of this."

"Of course. So what were we talking about? The next school project?"

"School project? Oh that! With all the excitement of the last couple of days I never even started it. Oh man I am so going to fail this one."

"Then it's a good thing I came over to help you with it."

The door opened. Robert's parents walked in. "Oh hi Nell, I didn't expect to see you here," said his mom.

"Hi Mrs. Justiniano, I was just about to start helping Robert with his homework if that's all right."

"Which class?"

"Economics," said Robert. "Just a stupid assignment in macro."

"It's what makes the world go around," said Robert's dad.

"Actually that would be residual angular momentum," said Nell.

Mr. Justiniano gave her a funny look.

"Science joke, Mr. Justiniano."

"Yes, I get it," he said, and left the room.

"So, should we get started on it? Where were you on the project?"

"Oh I didn't even start on it yet. Time to get moving."

Robert led Nell upstairs to his bedroom where they did they started working both on a project for an economics class.

Chapter Eleven

The first task was to finish the homework. Then Nell was invited to stay over for dinner, which was a common occurrence at the Justiniano household. Then Nell and Robert retired to the living room to make plans.

"I've got an idea," said Robert in a lower voice, low enough that his own parents wouldn't hear it but Nell would. "I don't know much about defeating evil robots from the future, but we can do some monkey wrenching."

"How do you propose we do that?" asked Nell.

"Simple. We make it uncomfortable for them here, call attention to them and make them have to spend more time covering their tracks than they would looking for your dad."

"You obviously have an idea, go on."

Robert adopted a high-pitched feminine voice. "Oh officer, thank goodness I found you, those two men over there are stalking me. They've been following me for an hour."

"Robert!" exclaimed Nell. "Isn't that just a little demeaning? Are you saying I'm some frail delicate dainty that needs to be rescued by some big strong man?"

"Do you think you could play one on TV?"

"Well, I did play the damsel in distress in the last play," laughed Nell. The tension that she had just raised was immediately defused by Robert's joke. "But how can we be sure that we can find police when we want them?"

"Oh that one's easy. I'll just go online and look for DUI checkpoints."

"But if we use the computer-"

"Quit over-thinking this Nell. That's the problem with you geniuses. I'm going to use my Dell laptop to connect to the perfectly ordinary internet. They're required to post their checkpoint locations publicly, or it is considered entrapment."

Robert booted up his laptop. "Yep, just as I thought. Palmdale Boulevard, Friday night, as usual."

"So what's the plan?"

"We get them to follow you, you drive to the checkpoint, and report them for following you. The real trick is to see how many times we can pull this stunt."

"Pull it again? How?"

"At the mall. There's always a couple of sheriff deputies at the mall. The more you play it up, the harder it will be for them. If you look scared, panicked, if you pretend they're a couple of perverts trying to stalk a sweet and innocent teenage girl, you've got them."

"Sweet and innocent?"

"Nell, you are innocent."

"Ha!"

"Don't even pretend."

"Oh like you're so much more worldly than I am?"

"Have YOU gone to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show yet?"

Nell pouted. "No fair, you know my dad won't let me go until I'm eighteen."

"So there," said Robert, smugly. "You're sweet and innocent, and that's what will convince the cops."

"What are you trying to convince the cops of?" asked Mr. Justiniano, walking into the room.

"Oh, nothing," said Nell. "We're just trying to work out the plot for a play I'm writing. It's all about secret agents, and the heroine wants to lose some enemy agents who are tracking her but don't want to be noticed."

"So she pretends to be sweet and innocent to convince the cops?"

"Yes sir."

"How's she planning on getting away from the cops while they question her?"

Nell and Robert looked at each other.

"Good question dad, we haven't gotten that far yet."

"You think about it. What's the name of the play?"

"The Dandruff patrol," said Robert.

"It's about the secret intrigues and dirty dealings of the hair care industry. All the stuff that goes on behind the scenes when you innocently buy a bottle of shampoo."

"You kids," chuckled Mr. Justiniano as he walked out. "Carry on, I'm sure it will be a big hit at your school."

"That was close," muttered Robert. "I wish we could do this at your place."

"Dad says it's too dangerous. He doesn't want you anywhere near him."

"What would he say about our idea to use you as a lure?"

"He'd be against it, of course. So we don't tell him what I'm doing until we've come up with some sort of better plan."

"He won't like that."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"So what do we do now?"

"Agent Dandrough doesn't want to be disturbed until tomorrow. He spent the last couple days in the desert and wants to enjoy being in a 'primitive hotel' that 'only has running water and air conditioning' to comfort him. Oh, and he wants to eat something other than stored rations."

Nell laughed at that.

"So should I drive you home?"

"No, you silly. I'll go ask your dad. Remember, you shouldn't get near my dad right now. What if Dandruff makes the connection?"

"I'll plead additional homework then. I think we should try the mall stunt tomorrow evening, after school. That way we don't have to wait until Friday to trip them up the first time, and it will allow enough days in between sabotage attempts to build a pattern for the police without building one for Dandruff."

It was arranged then that Mr. Justiniano drove Nell home while Robert did more homework. They would confer at school the next day to see if they could come up with any additional details about the mall trap before they sprung it on Agent Dandrough.

After school the next day, Nell went to the mall to wait for Robert near the food court. Robert when to the hotel where Agent Dandrough was holed up. During the night the rest of his robot crew had arrived. Agent Dandrough was annoyed at how many rooms he was required to purchase to house everyone but the hotel had a limit on how many people could stay in each room. It would have been impossible to explain to the clerk that these additional persons were robots without blowing his cover, so Agent Dandrough had to give in and purchase the additional rooms.

"At least I'm on an expense account, but the accounting of temporal transactions is a nightmare," said Agent Dandrough.

"Tell me about it," said Robert.

"Why should I have to explain it?" asked Agent Dandrough.

"It is a local phrase I picked up. It means that I understand your concern."

"What an odd expression," said Agent Dandrough. "I hope that I am not here long enough to learn the terminology of this era. That is for regular agents like you, not for special operations personnel."

"Naturally."

"So have you found anything?"

"Yes. I was thinking that perhaps the temporal anomaly I was tracking might be connected to the fugitives you are searching for. I had analyzed the pattern of the anomaly and determined that this evening it will be at a location known as 'the mall' for a few hours. I've gone there before to seek the anomaly, but I did not see anything out of the ordinary. If the anomaly I am seeking is a person, then that would explain why I did not notice her."

"Yes, that would explain why you did not notice the anomaly even though it was right in front of you."

"Perhaps you'll understand when you see her yourself."

They arrived at the mall. The parking lot was, as is usual, crowded, but they found a spot that was not too far away and entered the mall. Robert led Agent Dandrough and a couple of robots in suits through the mall to the food court. He held up his wrist and pretended to examine the vortex manipulator. He looked over at Nell, and when she looked back and he knew she was ready, he said softly to Agent Dandrough "there, right in front of us."

Agent Dandrough tapped on one of the robots and said "Initiate scan."

The robot looked around and replied "Four temporal anomalies detected."

"Locations?"

"Three at our present location, one twenty meters forward. Young human female." The robot then went on to give a slightly more detailed description of what Nell was wearing.

Nell, seeing the robot scanning her, got up and walked away towards the center of the mall. Robert, Agent Dandrough, and the robots followed her. She walked around the mall, always sticking close to the largest groups of people she could find, as she searched out the sheriff deputy patrolling the mall. She started walking faster, until finally she spotted one. She ran up to him, imitating a panicked expression. At this Robert turned around and walked away from Agent Dandrough so that he could watch from a safe distance.

"Oh than goodness I found you," she gasped, sounding hysterical. "Help me, please, help me."

"What appears to be the problem?" asked the sheriff deputy. "Calm down, it's alright. What's wrong?"

"There's three guys, they've been following me around the mall for the last hour."

"Following you?"

"Yes, stalking me. They look like they're in their thirties or something, wearing suits."

The sheriff looked around, and saw Agent Dandrough and the two robots looking at Nell. Making eye contact was sufficient evidence for him to decide to look into it. "Wait here," was all he said as he walked straight towards Agent Dandrough and the robots.

Robert edged around the crowd as the Sheriff confronted Agent Dandrough. He couldn't hear what was said between them, but it was clear that both the Sheriff and Agent Dandrough were getting agitated by the encounter. Robert exchanged glances with Nell and they both took off towards different exits that they had chosen earlier. The last that either of them saw of Agent Dandrough was when he was pointing at Nell as she was moving away. That was too much for the sheriff's deputy who saw them trying to break off the conversation to pursue Nell and called for backup to detain Agent Dandrough. He grabbed Agent Dandrough's arm in an effort to prevent him from leaving, causing the two robots to turn on the sheriff deputy.

Neither Nell nor Robert wanted to see the end of this. They escaped during the confusion and walked around the outside of the mall back towards their prearranged meeting spot. From there they both went to Robert's car and laughed as they pulled out of the mall.

Chapter Twelve

With Agent Dandrough in jail, the three had time to plan on what to do when he got out. They knew they only had a few days before his release would be arranged.

Lysander pointed out that using the regular DUI checkpoint would be tricky, because Nell was still only learning how to drive, there was no guarantee that Agent Dandrough would follow by car, and if this were attempted a second time there was a high likelihood that Agent Dandrough had created a convincing enough identity to ensure that the police would work with him next time.

Nell relayed the problem to Robert the next day at school. If Agent Dandrough were to verify that Lysander was indeed in the vicinity, he would report it back and even more time agents could report in. There was even the possibility that even more competent agents could be sent to replace Agent Dandrough. If the whole party were to disappear, an investigative team would be sent to find out what happened to Agent Dandrough and a dozen of the Agency's special operations robots. They had to find a way to convince Agent Dandrough to leave without revealing that he had found the correct time period.

Robert checked at the hotel after school the next few days. Each day the robots reported that Agent Dandrough had not yet returned. On the third day, finally, Robert met up with him.

"Oh, it's you. Agent Jackson. So, tell me, why didn't you help me out of this primitive jail? It took far longer than I wanted to get my robots to remedy the situation without creating any unwanted attention?"

"What did you do?"

"They inserted my biographical data into the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Once that was accomplished the local police were more inclined to trust my story."

"I was unable to help without blowing my own cover."

Agent Dandrough merely nodded at that.

"I do have another concern," said Agent Dandrough after a moment. "Four of my entourage have disappeared.

"What?"

"Four of my entourage have disappeared. I surmised that perhaps Leonidas Rothbard had attacked while I was detained, but that was not the case. I questioned them quite intently when I returned. Nobody disturbed them, they did not leave of their own volition, and they did not return to their own era as a result of my temporary absence. The stories all match, they were in their rooms and then all contact disappeared. Even the records of them having a room have been altered at the desk of this establishment. It is as if they were never here, except that I remember having one dozen robots assigned to my case. Now I only have eight."

"That is weird." Robert frowned at this.

"Yes, and if I return without them, and without a credible story about what happened to them, it may reflect poorly on my own record."

"If four of your robots have disappeared..."

"What?"

"I want to check out the capsule."

"You think that Leonidas might be after that as well?"

"Leonidas? Oh yeah, it is possible. If he is here then he might be after that as well. Or whatever I'm looking for is what took your robots and the capsule might also be missing. I was assigned because there is something unusual going on at this time and place, and I am determined to find out what it is. If it is your suspect then we are on the same case, but I'm sot sure. I suspect that he is only an ancillary detail, that if he is here then there is a deeper root cause."

"I don't really care much about your investigation, if it leads me away from my objective of capturing this refugee."

"If my investigation reveals what happened to your four missing robots then perhaps you should care a little about it."

"Your point is well made. Do you want me to come along?"

"Yes, please. As before my car can only take up to two of your robots."

"Oh very well. If that ship is missing it could indicate that he is here and that he took it. We were able to track the ship. If it is gone then we can find him that way."

The drive out to the desert was uneventful, and they did get to the location where Janus' ship had crashed. There was still a hole in the ground, slowly being filled with tumbleweeds, but the ship was no longer there.

"Unit five, locate the ship," said Agent Dandrough.

"The ship is gone," said the robot.

"I know the ship is gone. Where is it now?"

"The ship does not appear on any sensors. It is no longer in this valley."

"That means if this Leonidas took it, he had to have taken it out of the valley," said Robert. "He might not actually be here. Or if someone else took the ship, that someone else might have taken him as well."

The thought that there might be more going on than a mere manhunt for a political fugitive seemed to disturb Agent Derrick. "Unit five, do a full spectrum scan, see if you can locate anything unusual. Disregard the presence of myself and Agent Jackson. Coordinate your search with unit nine back at the hotel. Have unit three correlate the searches."

"Working," said the robot.

"How is his range?"

"It depends on what it is searching for. It also depends on local interference. There is an above normal amount of local interference in this valley. Searching for technology far advanced of what is normally found is usually quite easy, which is why we found this craft. There were other signals, but they all disappeared shortly after we arrived. For a while this was the only signal, until you turned up with your vortex manipulator."

"I cannot have been the only signal, or I would never have detected the female with the temporal distortion."

"As I said, their range is limited, and detecting people with temporal energy is particularly difficult."

Robert's cell phone buzzed. He ignored it, intent on seeing the results of the scan. It buzzed a few more times, with the vibrational noise of a cell phone in silent mode, before stopping. Finally the robot reported.

"Full spectrum scan completed, results compiled. No active future technology in this valley not already excluded from scan parameters. The craft is not in the valley."

Robert's phone started vibrating again, so he pulled it out of his pocket. He saw that he had two text messages from Nell. She rather urgently wanted him to call her.

"Excuse me, I have something else I need to look into."

Robert walked a short distance away and texted back "What?" He waited a few minutes and then Nell texted back that she needed to talk to him.

"Dandruff, I'm needed back in town. I can give you a lift back if you like."

"The name is Dandrough, and what do you need in town?"

"We've verified that the craft isn't here. I believe this is far larger than a hunt for a fugitive, and have some tentative leads I need to trace."

"Very well."

The ride back took little time, and after Robert dropped Agent Dandrough and the robots off back at the hotel he met Nell at his own house again.

"You knew I was off with Dandruff again. What was so important that you had to risk contacting me?"

"Oh that? Sorry. We've figured out how to get rid of Dandruff. It won't be any sort of problem."

"Good. So, when did your dad go out and get Janus' ship?"

"What?"

"When did he go get the ship? That's where Dandruff and I were, but the ship wasn't there. Nothing but a hole."

"Are you sure? It was cloaked. You might have missed it."

"We brought a couple of his robots with us. They did a thorough scan. It's not in the AV anymore. The thing is gone. Maybe the military found it and moved it to the base, and then put it in some shielded room or something."

"Robert, this isn't the time for jokes."

"I know I didn't do it. You say Mr. Rothbard didn't do it. Agent Dandruff was in jail. He seemed startled that it wasn't there. Also he was upset that four of his robots had disappeared while he was in jail. They didn't go back, they weren't destroyed. If your dad isn't doing this then something even bigger than I suspected is going on."

Nell looked worried. "You're right. Well, it's time for me to stop running and hiding. I need to speak with Dandruff."

"Aren't you concerned that they'll arrest you?"

"Actually, no. They only knew me as a temporal anomaly. They didn't realize that the only thing anomalous about you was your wrist band. Those robots do what they are told, but the guy giving the orders, he's not that bright. He doesn't know what orders to give. As long as I'm not his target, he'll only want me for questioning."

"But if they do a genetic scan?"

"Not a problem. Dad told me about what he did in the future. I was thinking he was a coward, wanting to run and hide. He was a terrorist! He and mom. She was a hacker, and she deleted their profiles. He wasn't exactly brave about it, he hid under a fake name and he didn't kill anyone, but still. I never knew he was that cool."

"What did he do?"

"Well, he told me there was a war going on, and also that the government was very bad, totally harsh. Anyone who didn't support the war was with the other side, and he was always speaking out against the war. He wrote some scathing essays under the pseudonym 'Leonidas' that really embarrassed a lot of government officials. He kept hard copies of news stories and then publicized them every time the official story changed. He told mom which government databases to hack so that he could send the information to the right people where it would do the most damage. He was a real freedom fighter."

"And the point is?"

"Well, that's why he's hiding now. He's got a death price on his head. But the real point is that they have no way of connecting him to me. As far as they know I'm just another temporal anomaly. All you have to do is say you convinced me to come in for questioning. Then we can figure out where the capsule is. And we can also figure out where the robots are. And if I'm right, we might just figure out exactly what the big riddle of the whole Antelope Valley is."

Chapter Thirteen

Agent Dandrough was immediately suspicious. It took a lot of smooth talking by Nell to make him reluctantly accept her. Eventually he did, after she explained that she was trapped here after her own equipment had disappeared, that she mistook Agent Dandrough for working with whoever took her equipment, but that the more gentle approach by Agent Jackson convinced her that she should work with the time agents to discover what exactly is going on in the Antelope Valley.

Agent Dandrough did request a robot scan, but it only verified that she was a temporal anomaly and was neither Leonidas nor his accomplice. A genetic scan turned up no match.

"What do you mean that there is no record?"

"The database does not contain the genetic information on the suspects."

"They probably erased the data," said Robert. "From what you told me I would not be surprised if that were true."

"Forget about that," said Nell. "First thing is finding out what happened to your robots. Four of them are missing?"

"Yes," said Agent Jackson. "Do you think I don't know this?"

"What happened when you checked their room?"

"There were two strangers from this time in there."

"Oh my, that means the hotel already rented out their vacant room. I wonder..."

"What?" asked Robert.

"Dandruff, have your robot interface with the hotel computer, see if there is a record of the room being rented to members of your team."

"Who do you think you are telling me what to do?"

"Sorry, would you please ask them to do that?"

Agent Dandrough thought about it for a moment. It was obvious that he had no desire to cooperate with this stranger, but also was interested in finding out what happened to his robots. Finally he gave in and gave the order.

"There is no record of that room being rented out," reported the robot.

"Just as I suspected," said Nell. "And on the news, the story about the 'meteor' that was actually a spaceship had been revised. They are reporting that the meteor must have disintegrated as it crashed, leaving no trace. I wouldn't be surprised if very soon the ditch formed by the impact were to start filling in."

"What is your connection to that ship?" asked Agent Dandrough.

"My connection? Nothing special. I was hoping I could use it to escape from this God forsaken valley."

"Look, lady, you can't walk in here and start giving orders," said Agent Dandrough. "I'm in charge here, you should be clear about that. You aren't even a time agent. If you want to stick around you will have to do as I say."

"What? Oh, I'm sorry. I should have respected your authority."

"Yes, you should. My primary concern is tracking down the fugitive, my secondary concern is recovering my missing robots. His concern, aside from assisting me, is figuring out what is causing temporal disturbance."

"I understand."

"That is good. Now, if you want to help us you are certainly entitled to, otherwise you can simply get out of the way."

"I'll help. I already helped, actually. My question to your robot helped with solving your secondary concern and probably his primary concern as well. And if you find out what's going on I might be able to leave here. I wanted that ship for myself."

"All this talk," said Agent Dandrough. "You are keeping me from my primary mission."

"Very well, what do you want to do next?" asked Robert.

Agent Dandrough thought about it for a few minutes. "Hm, well, now, hm. I suppose the best thing for me to do is to try to access the records of this time period, see if I can find anything on my suspect. Record keeping in this time is still primitive, but this is when it started to become comprehensive and computerized. If I scan the various government listings for Leonidas Rockwell I should eventually find something."

"And what should we do until then?" asked Robert.

"I don't care. No, wait. Since you seem to think that what you're looking into is connected to my missing robots, you keep on that. If you find something, you might find the guy I'm looking for. Or maybe you'll just find my robots. Either outcome is good for me."

"That's what I was just suggesting," said Nell, slowly.

"No, you weren't," said Agent Dandrough. "You were just rambling. It took a highly trained Time Agent like myself to figure this out."

"So how are we to contact you if we find anything?" asked Robert.

"Just come back here and contact one of my robots. I'll leave one on duty here."

"It might be better if we took one with us."

Nell looked quizzically at Robert for having said that.

"Hm, yes," said Agent Dandrough. "Yes, you take one with you. Unit three, come here."

One of the robots approached. He looked much like the others, so it was unclear to Nell and Robert how Agent Dandrough was able to tell them apart.

"In the interim you are assigned to these two individuals. Accompany them and assist them, but remain in contact with the other units." Agent Dandrough then turned to Nell and Robert. "I'm going to go look up the official records. Do not disturb me unless it is important."

"No problem," said Robert. "We're on our way. Unit three, come with us."

Nell, Robert, and unit three exited the room. As soon as they were a short way down the hall Nell asked "What was the bright idea bringing that thing along?"

"Calm down Nell. We can communicate through it, it can do scans for us, stuff like that."

"But we can't speak freely in front of it," hissed Nell.

"We'll figure something out."

They got to the car. Robert opened the door for the robot, and as soon as it was inside he pulled Nell close and whispered "Besides, it would look suspicious if we wanted to cut off contact. I'm sure your dad would understand if he were here. You have to keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Once in the car, Robert asked "So, do you have any ideas about how we can find this missing ship?"

"Nothing certain. I suppose it wouldn't hurt if I were to inspect the crash site. Maybe some clue was left behind that nobody thought to look for. If that doesn't work, maybe we can go back to the ruined church. I wonder if there might have been a secondary reason why Janus chose that location perhaps without even knowing why. I begin to suspect that he might have been manipulated by the very same ... whatever it is that we're facing here. If my first instinct doesn't pan out maybe we can search there as a backup. If that doesn't work out then I confess I'm at a loss."

"I only know of one other person we could ask," said Robert.

"No, he's not a technical person the way I am," answered Nell. "That reminds me, I need to send a text to my contact. I wish I could talk to him but I can't right now. I need to update a few people on what I'm doing right now."

Nell pulled out her phone and sent a text message. The robot in the back seat made no indication that it was at all interested in what was going on, but it was also possible that it did not react like a human and therefore would not show interest. Nell kept glancing back at the robot in the mirror, a sure sign to Robert that she was nervous.

They arrived at the scene of the crash. Already the ditch was more full than it had been the previous day. It could have been attributed to the wind blowing sand in, and the group of tumbleweeds that had drifted in since the previous day made it look even less empty. Still, if a person knew to look for it the ditch could still be found.

"So, robot, unit three," said Nell. "Scans have already been performed on the location of the ship? And it wasn't found?"

"Affirmative."

"Can you scan for residual radiations?"

"Affirmative."

"Please do then. Scan for any energy traces remaining from the ship, and also for any energy traces that could be the result of the ship being taken out of this ditch."

As the robot scanned, Robert asked "How do you know someone didn't just take it?"

"There aren't any tire tracks. Or, if they took it by helicopter, there is absolutely no indication of the winds produced by one. This was moved by more advanced means."

The robot was moving in a slow circle. Since its scanners were built in, it was hard to determine if it was making any progress in conducting its scan, so Robert and Nell waited.

Finally the robot spoke.

"There is residual radiation from the ship being here."

"Is it consistent with the amount of radiation expected from a ship landed less than a week ago and disappeared recently?"

"Negative."

"Are they higher or lower?"

"Lower."

"That is consistent with my theory," mused Nell.

"What is your theory?" asked Robert.

"That this isn't really a Null Zone. I think there's something even bigger going on here, bigger than a fugitive, bigger than a psychic alien trying to take over. I think we are close to stumbling on to the big secret of the Antelope Valley itself."

Nell turned to the robot. "Did you detect any other radiations inconsistent with what should be in this location that could indicate activity by an outside party acting upon the ship?"

"Affirmative. There is residual teleportation energy."

"Can you analyze the energy in sufficient detail to determine the source or destination?"

"Negative."

"I was afraid of that," said Nell. "Ok, Jackson, back to town. Wait, before we go there, I have one more question. Unit three, what was the last known location of the four missing robots?"

"The last location of the four missing robots was at the hotel."

"The hotel? Agent Jackson, you know our next location. We need to go back there and scan where the robots were last known to be in order to see if we can triangulate and find where these disappearing items have gone. Damn, I wish I had thought of that before we left, but I was so happy to get away from Dandruff that I rush out."

Chapter Fourteen

Once back at the hotel, Nell asked the robot what rooms the missing units had occupied. The robot was unable to tell her, and the hotel records were of no use, so Robert had to instruct the robot to ask Agent Dandrough. The robot then reported the message relayed from Agent Dandrough. They went to the first of the two rooms.

"How are you planning on getting in?" asked Robert.

"Just watch," said Nell. She knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" came a voice from the other side of the door.

"Hotel security," said Nell. The door opened up enough for the occupant to look through. Nell held up the psychic paper. "We need to doo an inspection, I'm afraid. This won't take long."

"I haven't done anything," said the man occupying the room.

"No, you're alright, no problem. This is about the guy who had the room before you did. We don't want you to get into any trouble, but if you cooperate then everything will be find."

The man opened the door the rest of the way. Nell, Robert, and Unit Three entered. The room was nearly identical to the room that Agent Dandrough was occupying. Nell turned and addressed the robot.

"The scans I had you perform earlier, please scan here as well. See if you can locate any residuals of the missing units. Agent Jackson and I will do a manual search."

"I don't want you pawing through my stuff," said the man renting the room.

"Don't worry, we're not interested in that," said Nell, examining the mirrors. Robert, not sure what to do, watched Nell and unit three work.

"Scan complete," said unit three.

"Excellent," said Nell. "Thank you for your time sir, you've been a big help. If you have any questions you can contact us through the local sheriff's station."

"I thought you were hotel security."

"Yes, I'm part of the sheriff's hotel security department, monitoring all the hotels around the valley. You've been a big help and we do appreciate it." Nell then led Robert and unit three outside of the hotel and around the corner to be out of sight.

"Unit three, when you conducted the scan, were you able to determine an origin or destination point for the teleportation energy?"

"Negative."

"Which unit specializes in data processing?"

"All units are identical."

Nell frowned at this and pulled Robert aside. "He's been useful, but now it's getting in the way."

"What should we do then?"

"I need to figure out a way to relay the readings to my dad's computer and have it process the data without being detected. If he turns it on, though, they will detect it. I can't get the data without the robots, I can't process it with the robots here."

"What if you claim it is yours and not your dad's?"

"That won't be easy. That unit on your wrist was hacked by my mom. I'm just learning this stuff, it's too new. Maybe if I knew how to use this equipment I could handle it, but I can't keep track of everything at once."

"Nell, calm down. I'm here to help you."

"You're right. What now?"

"I've got an idea." Robert walked back over to unit three. "Unit three, can you give me a printout of the scan data?"

"Negative."

"Why can you not do it?"

"This unit is not equipped with printing capability."

"If a printer was available would you be able to give me a printout?"

"Affirmative."

"The solution is obvious. We find a computer with a printer. On to the Kinkos."

It was only a short journey, and as soon as the robot was seated in front of their computer he found a way to interface and promptly downloaded the data from the scans. Although the information was condensed it still took far more pages than Robert was comfortable with paying for. Still, with some grumbling and a promise from Nell to pitch in as soon as possible, the printout was retrieved. Robert told the robot to go back to the hotel and wait for further orders. Then they drove back to Nell's house. Along the way they

"Good, Robert, now we have the data. I still need my dad's computer to help me figure out the pattern."

"I told you I've got this figured out. Just do it in as public a place as possible, a large crowd all around you."

"And he won't be able to interfere without creating a scene," finished Nell. "The bigger the crowd, the harder it will be to apprehend someone. Or even track them down easily if we're clever about it."

"I think it's time to talk to your dad again. Right now he's the only one who knows how to use that computer."

"True, I haven't had a chance to use it yet. I didn't even know about it until it was no longer safe to use it. I'd love to get my hands on it, try it out, see what I can learn from it."

"Nell, I'd be careful if I were you."

"Why?"

"How much do you want to know about that future?"

"What?"

"That computer, does it have information about the future? Stuff that maybe you should not know yet?"

"I had not thought about that."

"Be careful if you use it then. It could be a monkey's paw."

"Alright."

They arrived at Nell's home and walked in.

"Robert, what are you doing here?" asked Lysander. "You weren't supposed to meet with me until we got rid of the Dandruff."

"He's busy reading through police records," said Robert.

"Dad, we need to use the computer to find out where all the missing stuff is."

"Missing stuff?"

"Janus' ship and four of Dandruff's robots. All of it is missing, There is an indication that was moved by a third party. I've got a printout of the readings from the robot scan, but there's too much to go through. We need your computer."

"If I turn it on, they'll know I'm here. It rather destroys any plan I have of eluding them. I was hoping to wait them out if possible, but I had a back up plan. On the other hand I don't like sitting still and doing nothing. Perhaps the risk would be worth it if it gets me out of this house. And if they find us, well, I might enjoy another confrontation with agents of that state."

"And they'll send backup," said Nell.

"Only to a certain extent."

"They'll send more."

"You're right. I need to use this without them finding me. So how are we going to manage this stunt?"

"Robert actually thought it up. We need to stop hiding completely, we need to do this in as public a place as possible. Find the biggest crowd we can find and do it there."

"Robert? That's pretty clever. If you're going to hide a tree, you hide it in a forest."

"Don't sound so surprised, Mr. Rothbard."

"Sorry Robert."

"Well, we've got to get going. I'll have to drive, so that you and Nell can work on your computer together. I say we go down below and ride the ten freeway."

"I don't want to keep you out too late on a school night."

"You're right. We'll just have to do this at the mall, in the food court again. If they see us we can try to go through the department stores. A nice little chase could make this interesting."

"You keep away from us at the mall, you've put yourself at too much risk already."

"Too late, Mr. Rothbard. He saw me with Nell. He's not that smart but if he sees you with Nell even he can put it together."

"That valiant defender of freedom will consider you compromised. We'll lose the only advantage we have."

"Then we should move fast to try to avoid him seeing us."

They got back into Robert's car and he drove them to the mall. Lysander decided that he shouldn't start the computer until they were actually in the mall, and even Nell trying to explain how the time in the car would be the best time to scan in the printout failed to deter him.

Once in the food court, they took a seat behind the children's play area and quickly scanned in the documents.

"What makes this computer so much more powerful than those robots?" asked Robert.

"Those robots might be more powerful overall, but a lot of their processing is taken up with some special programming," said Lysander. "Vocal interface, locomotion, and even the vortex manipulators that are built in, all take up processing power. Agent Dandrough is stranded unless he catches his man."

"He doesn't have one of these wrist straps?"

"No. Regular time agents do, special agents don't."

The scan took surprisingly little time, but just as they had finished an alarm went off on Robert's wrist band. "Crap, they're on their way," said Nell. "They might be in the parking lot."

"Dispose the paperwork," said Lysander. "Robert, you keep a lookout. I can use this computer to contact you through your vortex manipulator. Nell and I need to stick together."

"If they see you together, they'll know I'm involved. We stick together."

"Alright. Nell, you tell me what you need the computer to do, I'll program it in. I'd let you do it but you're not familiar with this type of computer yet. Robert, just keep an eye on the indicator on your wrist, let me know when they get within 1000 meters."

Nell described what she wanted the computer to do, and Lysander programmed it in. As they did so, Robert watched the indicators on the vortex manipulator. "They're too close," said Robert.

"We've got to get up, get moving," said Nell. They rose and walked in a direction directly away from the robots into a department store at the end of one leg of the mall.

"I would have rather done this on the freeway," said Robert as they walked rather briskly.

"They would be able to put a tracker on your car, and it would have been all over," said Lysander. "Trust me, I know."

As they walked, Nell and Lysander continued to work on the computer, while Robert keep tracking the scanner on his wrist and directing them in the best direction away from Agent Dandrough and the robots.

"That's it for the calculations, how long will it take to work?" asked Nell.

"I don't know. We'll have to keep running until it is done."

"They'll catch up with us soon unless we do something," said Robert. "That trick with the police last time won't work again."

"Then you and Nell get away from me. You don't need to stick with me any more."

"I've got a better idea," said Nell. "Give me the computer, I'll say it's mine."

"They'll recognize it as from our era."

"Maybe, or maybe I can out bluff them again. Either way you need to get away from here, dad."

"I want to end this," said Lysander. "But you're right, something bigger is going on. Here, take it. I'll head back to home and see you soon enough." Lysander handed Nell the computer and left Robert and Nell alone.

Chapter Fifteen

Although Nell was in her accustomed role of taking charge, Robert kept a close eye on the scanner on his wrist. He could see where Agent Dandrough and the robots were, but he could also see where Lysander Rothbard was. Much to his dismay it seemed that Lysander was not getting out of the mall but was instead circling around to get behind Agent Dandrough.

"Your dad isn't giving up," said Robert as they rounded an exit and hurried to the next mall entrance.

"What? But we're doing this to keep him safe."

"I think he doesn't like the idea of hiding behind a couple of kids."

"If I still had my psychic amplifier, I could change Dandruff's mind, convince him there's nothing to find here."

"That does sound useful, but I'm glad you don't have it."

"Yeah, mind control. I might turn into Janus. You're right Rob."

"Quick, turn. They're coming at us from another angle."

It was not easy to evade the robots in a single level mall, especially since most shops were by default dead ends. That was the last place they wanted to hide with the computer still running. Once it had completed its computations then perhaps it would be possible to hide in that manner.

"Look, across the parking lot," said Robert, pointing.

"What?"

"The bus. It's picking people up. If we hurry we can catch it. By the time they catch up to us the bus should be moving. They can't go as fast as they want because people can see them and they have to remain somewhat undercover."

"Then hurry."

They ran across the parking lot as fast as they could. They arrived just in time because the bus was just closing its doors when they got there. The doors reopened, Nell and Robert boarded, and then closed again. Through the window they could see three of the robots walking across the parking lot at them. When the bus started moving, they started running but it was too late.

"Wait, my father!" gasped Nell when she realized that he had been left behind.

"He's been at this intrigue business longer than we have. He probably knows what he's doing. You'll have to trust him."

"You're right. For now we're drawing them off. I just hope his plan was to confront them only if he absolutely had to. Oh look, calculations are complete."

"What's the computer say?"

"I can't make easy sense of this. We need to find a place to stop and make a printout."

"Save it and turn off the computer. We can double back. If they're not also tracking this wristband."

"These numbers, they don't make sense."

"Nell, save it and turn it off."

The sound of urgency in Robert's voice caused Nell to snap out of her focus on the problem. She looked up and blinked a couple of time. "What? What's going on?"

She finally saw what Robert was looking at. Three people around them were now staring at them. Nell and Robert were worried, but not panicked because these three were not robots from Agent Dandrough, but still it was obvious that Robert and Nell were receiving special attention.

"Hello," said Nell cautiously.

"Hello," came the reply from a man who appeared to be their leader. "That's a very interesting smart phone you have there."

Nell brought the computer to her lap face down. "Thank you."

"So where did you get it?"

"My dad bought it for me."

The man smiled. "Of course he did."

"What do you want from us?" asked Robert.

"My associates and I represent a special group of interested parties. I doubt you've heard of us, but we are interested in things that others might consider unusual.

"Who are you?"

"Like I said, I doubt you've heard of us."

"That doesn't mean we don't want a name to go with the faces."

"I am Nicholas Kotz, and these are my associates Alan and Jessica."

"Pleased to meet you Nicholas. Now what is this special group that you represent?"

The smile disappeared. "Like I said, I doubt you've heard of us."

"Probably not. Maybe I have."

Nicholas sighed. "We represent an underground organization that can help protect you from the individuals currently chasing you."

"You know we're being chased?"

"We've been watching this person ever since he arrived in the Antelope Valley. He is an anomaly, which wouldn't be that bad anywhere else. But strange things aren't supposed to happen here. It took a long time to realize how special this place was, but if you were to create a map of uncommon occurrences you'd find that they are common in many places but are not common here. It took an inversion to figure it out, where you plot what is missing instead of what is actually there. Once the inversion map was drawn we knew this place was special, precisely because it wasn't special."

"So far you haven't told us anything we don't know," said Nell.

"But we have told you that we also know it," said Alan.

"True enough."

"And we also know that there has been quite a bit of activity recently that shouldn't have happened here," continued Alan. "We were going to investigate, but we found out just a little too late to get involved. By the time we had tracked down the crash you had already taken care of the inhabitant of the craft that landed in the east valley."

"So was it you who took the space ship?"

"And now you've just told us that there was a space ship," said Nicholas, his smile returning. "You' are new at this. And no, we didn't take it. We were having a hard time finding it. That's the problem with cloaking technology, it cloaks things to you can't find them. But you kept returning there, and it was obvious that you didn't consider the men in suits to be friends."

"Were you watching us/?"

"We had to. It is our opinion that you are looking for the same thing we are looking for. You want to uncover the secret of the Antelope Valley."

Nell and Robert looked at each other, stunned.

"There's obviously more to you two than meets the eye. It is hard to notice anything important here unless you know exactly what it is that you are looking for. Even then something in this valley makes it hard to do so. But you did finally come to our attention."

"And what does that mean?"

"We did some research. You, young lady, are perhaps the most fascinating person in this valley. Your friend here, although quite interesting in his own right, isn't nearly as interesting as you are. For instance, there are no older records of your family, miss."

"So you know our names?"

"Our resources are quite extensive. Once we started tracking your movements we eventually came to the gentleman's residence. From there finding out your names was quite easy. Simple background checks were performed, and that by itself led to a greater mystery."

Nell and Robert just sat there.

"Not going to say anything? Then I'll say it. Miss, Eleanor Rothbard, you don't exist. I mean, obviously you do, but the records for your family only go back less than two decades. Oh, someone has done a very good job planting older records, such a good job that even we were fooled at first, but cross examination is so much easier these days and we found multiple inconsistencies. To put it simply, your whole family appeared out of nowhere."

"We were refugees, we didn't bother with proper paperwork."

"Yes, quite a believable story. Refugees from Nazi Germany according to the updated records, and times were so chaotic that it would be easy to overlook things. It is possible that the paperwork on your family from that time was lost."

"Yes they were," said Nell.

Nicholas sighed again. "Look, if you want to escape those men in the suits, then denying things we all know is a bad way to go about it. We know that you aren't from here. We don't know what your story is yet, but we know you and your parents didn't exist a mere twenty years ago. We won't ask where you came from, not now. Maybe later, if it is important."

"Are you with the military?"

"Us? No. They are also searching for the big secret. The lake bed isn't the only reason both the Air Force and NASA have an installation in this otherwise useless valley. And if you keep being so obvious about what you're doing then eventually they will notice you too. They're not as good at finding these things out as we are, but they figure things out eventually."

"So what are you planning on doing with us?"

"Nothing." Nicholas looked rather shocked at that statement. "We aren't planning on doing anything to you. We want your help, and so as a gesture of good will we are offering to help you first. But let me warn you, if you really are looking for the secret of the Antelope Valley you should be very careful."

"Because not all groups looking for this are as nice as you?"

"Oh no, that's not it at all, although you don't want to fall into the hands of military intelligence. No, the reason is, if you go looking for the secret of the Antelope Valley, then the secret goes looking for you. You don't want it to find you first. The rest of our organization didn't believe us, until we lost a few operatives on this quest."

"You lost people?" asked Robert.

"Yes. That's what finally proved that we were on to something here."

The bus slowed.

"I think this is our stop," said Robert. "How can we reach you?"

Jessica handed Robert a business card. It only had a phone number on it.

"Call that number," said Nicholas.

Robert and Nell got off the bus. They were in Lancaster City Park.

"Great, now how will I go get my car," groaned Robert.

"Don't worry, my dad can drive us back there. In fact, he'll probably want to in order to get you home before it gets late. Or you can call your parents. We're not stuck. So tell me, what do you think of those three people?"

"I didn't like them," said Robert. "Mostly I don't trust them. There's something about them I don't like. They're not being completely honest with us."

"You're right. They're not. They are interested in helping us, true, but for their own ends. They don't really care about us except for how we can advance their agenda for them."

"So what do you want to do about them?"

"I guess the thing to do is confer with our expert on intrigue."

Chapter Sixteen

Robert and Nell wound up calling a friend to take back to the mall, from where Robert took Nell home. The next evening Robert went over to her house. When he got there he was not surprised to discover that Nell had already briefed her father over what happened the previous evening on the bus.

"I didn't want to say anything until you were here Robert," started Lysander. "I don't think these guys are government agents, although I agree with Nell here that their intentions are certainly not entirely benevolent."

"So what do you think they are dad?"

"They're probably some secret society. They had a fair amount of contempt for the government, but that's not an absolute indicator. Often one government agency has contempt for rival agencies, or agents of one government have contempt for another government. But it didn't seem to be department specific from your description."

"A secret society?" asked Robert, disbelief evident in his voice.

"Yes. History is full of them. Secret societies, conspiracies, and so on actually do have a major impact on contemporary events. And they're even more effective when they work out in the open, but in those cases they have to offer apparent goals to hide their secret goals."

"I can't believe this."

"Do you have a better explanation, Robert?" Lysander looked at Robert the way a teacher would when facing a student struggling with a difficult problem. "Especially after all you've been through in the last week."

"You win. So they're a secret society?"

"They're not uncommon in this era. People are only starting to discover just how much there is beyond the confines of this planet. The nineteenth through twenty second centuries were a great time in terms of learning about the universe."

"What about these people?" asked Nell.

"You haven't given me enough information to identify them, and not all of them are catalogued anyway. So we can rest for the moment knowing that while they probably don't care about what is good for us, they can't arrest us. That doesn't mean we're safe though. In fact we are most certainly not safe. Not only do we have to avoid Dandrough, we're being watched by someone else, someone good enough to notice us and to notice this valley. And they warned us that whatever it is you are looking for will come after you if you aren't careful."

"So what do we do now?" asked Nell.

"Dandrough expects Robert here to find the missing robots. You want to know where Janus' ship is. So you have to keep looking. It's too late to keep worrying about keeping you safe, people know about you. I'm sure soon enough they'll know about me too if this keeps up. And I hate hiding. I only did it to keep you safe, and now you're out there in the spotlight running from robots and meeting these conspiracy creeps. I think the best plan right now is to go meet these conspirators. All three of us, since they already know about the two of you. I need to get out of the house anyway, sitting here waiting is driving me crazy."

"So you want me to call them and meet with them?"

"Yes, some place public, but not the mall. Let's meet in a park. Some place public enough so that we can draw attention to ourselves if we need it, but some place private enough to be left alone."

Nell made the call. It was arranged that everyone would meet Saturday at noon. The rest of the week was spent going through the ordinary routine. Robert turned off the vortex manipulator, making it impossible for Agent Dandrough to use it to find him. The only remaining risk on that front was if Agent Dandrough somehow was able to track down Lysander Rothbard through the use of civil records.

Their luck held. Saturday found Nell, Lysander, and Rothbard sitting in Poncitlan Square. They were sitting on a bench waiting for the strangers from the bus to show up. Their wait was rewarded when Nicholas, Alan, and Jessica arrived.

"I see you brought someone with you," said Nicholas, who was apparently the spokesperson for the group. "This is unexpected."

"But it is someone you will want to meet anyway," said Nell. "This is my father, Lysander Rothbard."

"Oh it is a delight to meet you then."

"Yes," said Lysander. "And who are you representing exactly?"

"I said the name of our group doesn't matter."

"It does to me, since you obviously are not your own master. You answer to others who are higher and more important than yourselves. If you are here to treat with us then I would like to be assured that you are capable of making some independent decisions instead of having to run everything through your supervisors."

This obviously grated the three strangers from the bus. "We are competent to deal with you. We are a special unit dedicated to this area."

"Then you can tell me the name of your organization."

Nicholas looked at Alan and Jessica. They seemed to be considering. Finally Alan nodded.

"Our organization is called 'the Three Families.' It is not well known, of course."

"Actually I have heard of you. It doesn't make me inclined to want to deal with you, but our need is greater than normal at this time."

"You have heard of us?"

"Yes, I have. Typically ruthless group, dedicated to 'the higher good', meaning of course that you get to tell everyone else what to do for their own sake because you can tell them better than they can."

Alan spoke up at that description. "That's hardly a fair assessment, and also is no proof that you've heard of us. You could just as easily have made that up based on the fact that we are not very well known."

"I could have. I just wanted to establish that I don't trust you. But unfortunately we are in a bind here. As a result we may be forced to work with you, but that doesn't mean that we are eager about it. If you want to help us, you should know that we know it isn't benevolence that motivates you. We know that there is something in it for you, some angle that benefits you."

"Dad, don't antagonize them."

"Sorry, Nelly, but they're almost as bad as the government. The only difference is they can't arrest us, and if they try to do more they run the risk of the government looking at them. Unless of course one of them is part of the government, which is also part of their way of doing things."

"So you don't trust us," said Alan. "Fine. And you want to know our angle. And if we told you then you probably wouldn't believe it, because it is us telling you. So you tell me, what do you expect from us if we help you? Do you want us to get rid of that guy in the hotel?"

"What? Of course not."

"Because you could do that yourself. You're hardly the paragon of virtue on your side."

"It is true that I could do so myself. But it is also true that if I got rid of him then he would be replaced, perhaps by someone more competent."

"Ah, it comes together now. You can't dispatch him without his superiors knowing that there is someone here who would want to dispatch him. So you need a way to discourage him without him figuring out that he is being actively discouraged."

"Oh that's not a problem," said Nell. "I've already figured that out. As soon as we find out where all the missing stuff has gone, then we can work on getting rid of that jerk."

"So why were you running from him?" asked Nicholas.

"We were trying to figure out where all the missing stuff has gone, and we had to alert him to our presence in order to do so. I couldn't simply shut it all down, we were in the middle of a major computation."

"And did you find out anything?" asked Alan.

"No, I didn't get time to review the result of the calculations yet. I need to print them out, and for that I need to turn on the computer, and that will alert him to our location."

"So what you need is a secure location from which to do your work. Well then it does seem we can help each other. See, Mr. Rothbard, there was no need for you to be so hostile at the beginning of this conversation."

"You can provide such a location?"

"Yes, Mr. Rothbard. We have several options. First, we do have some very well shielded facilities available. But if you are still not trusting us, we can provide a perimeter of security around you as your daughter works."

"And what would you want from this?"

"The same thing you want and the same thing she wants. We want to figure out what is really going on here. Don't bother to ask why, you know why. Knowledge itself is power, and if we know what is really going on then we have that power. So you are right, and although we don't directly want any payback from the three of you, we are going to gain from this arrangement."

"Nell, Robert, I'm not going to make this decision for you. What do you think about their offer?"

"I don't like it either, but it is the only way I can see out of our dilemma," said Robert. "We can't use your computer, but we can't not use it either."

"Exactly. I think for now we have to work with them whether we like it or not. They have what we need. And besides, I think if you are right, then they have ways of making life uncomfortable for us."

"Are you actually saying we give in to their pressure?"

"Of course not, dad. I'm just saying that if we have to work with them, we might as well make it work for us. Just like they are making it work for them. If they're going to use us, we might as well use them back, and do so before it gets ugly."

"Ah, I understand. An alliance of convenience. Very well, you heard my daughter, we will work with you for now."

Chapter Seventeen

Eventually Nell decided that operating the computer in a shielded location would be best, but not one enclosed, and that she would also accept the offer of additional security as well. Her father's paranoia had finally gotten to her and she refused to allow herself to be boxed in by these representatives of the Families. Unfortunately they could not find a way to get to any public place that had a public computer and a public printer. Eventually they agreed to use a storefront that was being rented by the Families.

Fortunately the storefront had large windows in front, and was otherwise deserted. The Families had set up a computer and a printer, but the store was otherwise empty. The three representatives of the family were there, as well as six other men who were apparently the additional security.

The three representatives looked on eagerly as Lysander interfaced the mini-computer with their computer. No physical connections were necessary, Lysander's computer took over the other and started the printout. It did not take very long, but one of the guards said "Uh-oh, I think they noticed us."

"I thought you said this place was shielded!" protested Nell.

"We thought it was," said Jessica.

"Get us out of here," said Robert.

"No," said Nell. "I've got a better idea. Dad, you take Robert out the back. You guys make sure it is safe. But don't have them leave yet. I want to time this so that those robots bring in their leader, Agent Dandrough. I want them in here at the same time Dad and Robert leave. I want to capture them. I'm tired of us running from them."

"Capture them?" Nicholas looked at her blankly.

"You can do it, can't you?"

"You said 'robots' to describe the people you are running from," said Alan. "I don't know that the people I provided for security are up to the task and I don't want to put them at risk unnecessarily."

"I don't know their capabilities. But if I'm right then we will draw in their leader, and he's just as human as you and me. Now get them into the back room, get them ready to leave."

Two of the guards escorted Robert and Lysander to the back room of the shop while Nell remained in the front with the rest. Three robots were standing in front of the shop, trying to stare in through the window.

"The shielding is good after all," said Jessica, sounding relieved. "It wasn't enough to hide you but it was enough to obscure things."

"We can invite them in at any time," said Nell. "I have the computer they're using to find us, just make sure that everything is clear out back."

One of the guards went to the back. When he returned he reported that Lysander and Robert had departed with their two guards.

"Good, time to let the robots in," said Nell. She sounded just a little nervous, but very determined.

The guard moved over to the door. "Can I help you?"

"We wish to enter," said the robot.

"As soon as Agent Dandrough is here," called out Nell. "As soon as he is here you may enter the store."

The robots barged in anyway but stopped as soon as they were inside. The four guards looked at Nicholas nervously, and he looked to Nell, but she waved them down.

"You know, you weren't invited in. If you're pretending to be the police you're supposed to have a warrant before you enter a building without permission." Nell looked at them rather smugly. The robots didn't move. "Ok, if you're not going to say anything, go get Agent Dandrough here."

The robots stood motionless. Nicholas raised an eyebrow.

"You won't see them relaying the message, but since they're not doing anything then they were probably told to wait here for backup. I'm pretty sure that Agent Dandrough will be here pretty soon."

The wait was tense. The guards were restive, and everyone else was nervous. From the road they saw four more figures, one of them was Agent Dandrough. They walked over to the store and walked in to join the robots already in there.

"Hi Dandruff," said Nell. "Well, there are seven of you and eight of us, so I think we should try to play nice."

"Play nice?" asked Agent Dandrough. "What an interesting phrase. And I'm pretty sure that my six remaining robots are more than a match for the six men you have backing you up here. I knew that you were involved in my investigation. Now I see that you are closely connected to my target. Proof. I'm going take you in for questioning."

"I don't think so," said Nell. "Let me guess, you're not afraid because your robots are strong enough to take on regular humans without any problem?"

"Oh indeed. One of my robots would be more than enough, I am sure."

"Well, Nicholas, I won't put your men at risk. They can relax. I'm pretty sure I can handle this all on my own."

She sat down in the only chair and crossed her legs. "Dandruff."

"That's Dandrough."

"Dandruff, let me guess, you are looking for my grandfather?"

"Your grandfather?"

"He's the founder of our little order."

"So you can take me to him? This grandfather of yours?"

"Only if you have a medium with you. I'm afraid you got here a little too late. But he did tell me that it was possible that someone would show up and look for him. I fooled Agent Jackson. He thinks I'm a harmless traveler, when I'm also what he's looking for too. As technology advanced in this era it became easier for us to use some of the remnants that my grandfather brought back. It was probably the signal from this computer that enabled you to figure out that you want to come here now."

"Actually we were told to search in this time period. A rather helpful alien. We are grateful that you defeated Janus for us, because had he been successful the future of this planet would be very different by my time."

"Oh, I see. Janus did threaten me with revenge. Yes, you're right. We saw him as a threat to our plans. He probably saw what was a temporal disturbance around me and tracked it down to grandfather's time. Anyway, thank you for that little bit of information. Now that I know if I ever see him again I can take a much more vicious revenge. Honestly I thought at first that I had destroyed him, then I realized I had only sent him to his own plane. I wonder how many centuries it took for him to come back."

"That doesn't concern you. Once we get you back to my time we can question you much more thoroughly."

"No, it's time for me to end this. You're not taking me anywhere, and you're not going to go back to my grandfather's time. If you do I will probably disappear, and you see I don't really want that. What about you Nicholas?"

"The order gives my life meaning," said Nicholas.

"Exactly. Everyone in the room can say the same about the order."

"And I will be restoring the timeline," said Agent Dandrough.

Nell turned in her chair so that she wasn't facing Agent Dandrough anymore. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled something out. Then she swiveled back to face Agent Dandrough.

"I don't want the timeline restored, I like being important in this town." She pointed the item from her jacket at the nearest robot. It emitted a high pitched squeal and the robot shoot, sparked a little, and froze. She turned to the next closest one. The other four started to move towards her but the guards jumped into action and held them back. It was a losing struggle, but it gave Nell the time she needed to disable all the robots.

"A sonic screwdriver," said Nell. "An interesting device that we collected over the years. I believe it didn't exist yet in your time."

"What have you done to my robots!" Agent Dandgrough's voice was nearly hysterical. "I need them to get back!"

"I just disabled them. I need you out of the way. Now my associates here will make you their guest until I'm done with some other, more important business. I suggest you cooperate, you're not nearly as strong as your robots."

Agent Dandrough was very upset, but seeing that he was clearly lost he complied. Once confined, Alan turned to Nell and said "What do you want me to do with him, mistress."

"Just keep him somewhere safe. If he behaves I'll restore his robots."

"Including the six you've already stolen from me?"

"Two more are gone? Interesting. I'm glad that I have the remaining six before the other side got them. Take him away."

The two guards led Agent Dandrough out of the room.

"Good acting," gasped Nell as she collapsed back into the chair. "I was so afraid you wouldn't pick up the cue."

"Well, mistress," said Nicholas ironically. "If we have to go through this much trouble because of him then we were happy to do this for a little while. Let me give you a bit of advice. If you're going to do anything in terms of conspiracy or secret activity, you will have to be a very good actor or you won't get very far."

"So now what?"

"Well, you hand over those documents you just printed out. That way we can find out what is going on in this valley. That's the whole reason we were willing to help you in the first place."

"But that's not fair."

"Nell, fair was never a part of it. You were planning on using us just as we were planning on using you. Well, we out maneuvered you this time."

"Are my friend and my dad safe?"

"Yes, they are, for now."

"Is that a threat if I do not turn over the printout?"

"Only if it has to be."

"Very well," said Nell. She picked up the stack of papers and handed them over to Nicholas. He glanced at them.

"I can't make heads or tales of this."

"I know. I expected this double cross, so I had all the information encrypted. It looks like you still need me. So, are we friends again?"

"Yes," said Nicholas through gritted teeth. "We still need each other."

"And Robert and my dad are still safe."

"Yes, for now."

Chapter Eighteen

"Now, are Robert and Dad really ok? Or are they perhaps secure somewhere else on the condition that I hand over these papers?"

"Yes, they are safe," said Alan.

"No, you're lying to me. You are holding them in case I don't hand these papers over. You said as much to Jessica last night."

"What? But how did?"

"You guys are easy to read," smirked Nell. "So what now? I can give you the papers now, but it would take you a very long time to figure it out. I want my partners back now."

"Or you could print out a clean and unencrypted copy for us, since you placed us all at risk with your plan to capture Agent Dandrough."

"Now if I print out a copy for you, then of course you'll keep everything and release Dandrough so that I'm not able to create a new copy for myself. I don't particularly want that. I also want to find out the secret of this valley. So what kind of deal can we make now?"

"You can perhaps tell us the encryption key."

"Oh that. It's the same as the Voynich manuscript. It shouldn't take you more than a century to crack, if you work hard at it. The information is much less complex. And once you figure out the key you can use it to astound the world by translating a great mystery that has puzzled people for centuries."

"The what?"

"They Voynich manuscript. You mean you haven't heard of it?"

"No."

"Then what are you waiting for? Look it up?" Nell stepped away from the computer that the Families had provided.

Jessica sat down at the computer and typed it into the search engine. Many links came up describing the manuscript.

"It says it isn't solved, that nobody has cracked the encryption yet."

"No, not at this time," said Nell. "It will be sometime between now and the forty ninth century, so don't worry you will get your answer. If you wait. So now we're at another standoff. Will you be nice to us so we can return the favor, or will you be back stab us like you were planning so we can return the favor?"

"I'm going to confer with my associates. Don't let her leave until we're back." With that Jessica led Nicholas and Alan into the back room of the store. Nell sat back down and waited awkwardly while the four guards stood there nervously around the six inert robots. Finally they returned to deliver their decision.

"Nell, we have your father and your friend," said Alan.

"If you ever want to see them again, or even get out of here" said Jessica.

"You will deliver to us an unencrypted version of the data," said Nicholas.

"I don't think so," said Nell.

"What are you planning to do?" asked Alan.

Nell pointed the sonic screwdriver at one of the robots and activated it. The robot shuddered briefly while Jessica bolted across the room and tackled Nell, knocking the screwdriver from her hand.

"Help me," yelled out Nell. The robot stepped towards Nell. A couple of the guards tried to restrain it, but it just threw them off. It reached Nell and Jessica in a few seconds and plucked Jessica off of Nell. Nell got up, grabbed the sonic screwdriver, and pointed it at the next robot.

"I only need one," said Nell. "I can activate the rest anytime I want."

"So you're choosing Agent Dandrough again?" asked Nicholas.

"No. This one now works for me. Isn't that right?"

"Affirmative."

"What is your designation?"

"This unit is Unit Eleven."

"I want you to restrain the female."

Unit Eleven walked over to Jessica and picked her up again.

"Now, Nicholas, I assume you have no strong desire to harm Jessica. I certainly don't want her hurt either. But after everything I've been through recently, all I want is to know my dad is safe. Robert too."

"You're right, you're not a killer."

"Unit Eleven, would you obey an order to kill?"

"Affirmative."

"I'm not, but he is. And now that I've moved the stalemate a step or two in my favor, I'm going to call my dad."

Nell pulled out her cell phone and dialed. After a few rings Lysander answered.

"Nelly? What's up? Is everything alright?"

"On my end. How are things on your end? Have you ditched the guards?"

"Ditched them? No, they've stuck to us like glue."

"Are you safe?"

"Yes. Where's Agent Dandrough?"

"We've nullified him. Can your guards hear me when I talk to you? Don't respond in any way that is obvious."

"No."

"Good. They're threatening the two of you on this end. Can you get away from them?"

"I don't know."

"Could you try?"

"Yes, we could."

"Do so. When you're done, call me back. I'm safe here, we have a stalemate here, but I've got the upper hand. Wait, I've got a better idea, hold on."

Nell lowered the phone. "Which one of you is willing to tell their guards to come back here, that all is well?" When nobody answered Nell said "I thought so." She spoke back into the phone. "Tell them that they're needed back here, that Dandrough has overwhelmed their companions."

"Ok, I will."

"Call me back when you're rid of them." With that Nell hung up her phone and put it back in her pocket. She faced Nicholas. "Now we wait. So tell me about the Families."

"There's nothing really to tell," said Nicholas. "We seek out things that are strange and unusual."

"But not for an altruistic goal. Something tells me the families don't have a strong interest in this place, otherwise you would have a larger operation here. You keep saying that this is a special assignment. Would that be another way of saying this is a largely independent assignment not given to more valuable operatives?"

"No, the value of this assignment is not considered to be low."

"But it is not high enough for a larger investment. Perhaps they feel that the likelihood of a payoff is low?"

"Yes. The Families are not convinced that this will be a worthwhile investment of their resources, so they do not invest a lot. But they recognize a large potential reward, which is why they invest at all."

"So they are not sold on the secret of the Antelope Valley, but are willing to invest just in case it is worth their time. So what do you think they would say about recent events?"

"I am not at liberty to say."

"Of course not, and you're taking great care to not think about it too clearly. Good for you, I guess that means you've figured something out about me as well. So I guess when this is over we'll still be in regular contact whether I want it or not. How nice."

Nell kept her eye on Nicholas and Alan while she stood near Unit Eleven.

"They're not going to escape from our guards," said Alan.

"Perhaps you underestimate them."

"We underestimated you. But you are the brains of your little operation and they are far away from you."

After a few minutes of waiting in silence the cell phone in Nell's pocket rang again. Nell pulled it out, read the caller ID, and answered. "Dad, what's up? Can you talk?"

"Yes, Nell. We ditched them."

"But how?"

"Oh it was surprisingly easy, we'll tell you about it later. Just come home when you are can get away from the rest of them. Can you do so easily, or do you need me to come and get you?"

"Oh I can get out of here without any difficulty."

"You've already overcome them?"

"Yes I have. Don't worry, I'll be along soon."

Nell hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take the printout with me, but as a consolation prize you can keep these deactivated robots. I'm going to keep this one with me in order to guarantee your good behavior."

"You have not heard the last of this, Nell Rothbard," said Jessica.

"I'm sure I haven't. Unit Eleven, release Jessica and accompany me out of here. You will walk in the same direction I walk, and in the event that I am attacked you will protect my person from harm. Do you understand?"

"Affirmative."

"Bye, Nicholas, see you later."

Nell walked out the front door of the store, followed by Unit Eleven. She looked back at the door and noticed that the store front looked different. Apparently a reflective coating had been applied to the windows to make it difficult to see into the store. She could not tell what was going on inside the store, what the response to her departure was. She walked quickly with Unit Eleven keeping up easily. She went down a block and waited at the bus stop.

"Unit Eleven, Agent Dandrough said that he was down to six robots. Did two more disappear?"

"Affirmative."

"When all units are active are you in contact with each other?"

"Affirmative."

"After they disappeared so did the contact?"

"Affirmative."

"Were there any unusual signals from the units that disappeared at the time of their disappearance?"

"Affirmative."

"Did Agent Dandrough ask any of the units these questions?"

"Negative."

Nell furrowed her brow in thought. The puzzle still wasn't coming together, and she had to solve it before the members of the family did. Before she could ask any more questions the bus arrived. Nell and Unit Eleven got on the buss and rode it towards Nell's house. While on the bus she called her dad.

"Hi dad."

"Nell, are you away from them?"

"Yeah. I'm coming home. I'll be there in a few minutes, I'm taking the bus."

"Good, we need to talk. I'll be waiting for you."

"Is something wrong?"

"Not exactly. Things are just rather complicated right now, as you are surely aware. I'll save it for when you get here."

Nell frowned. She got off the bus at the stop nearest her house. It was still a somewhat long walk to get to her house, but when she got near she stopped.

"Unit Eleven, how many people are in the house?"

"There are four people in the house."

"I knew it, they didn't ditch their guards. Here's what we're going to do. When we get to the house you will remove the two men guarding Lysander and Robert. Do you understand?"

"Affirmative."

"Very good. Let's go home."

Chapter Nineteen

It only took a minute for Unit Eleven to rout the two guards, even with their advance notice that Nell and a robot were on their way. Then Lysander explained that he was made to say that he had escaped in an effort to lure her in.

"They said that you encrypted it with the code from the Voynich manuscript?"

"I lied. You can't encrypt numbers that way. I just wanted to throw them off. It is encrypted though, because I heard them thinking about how they're planning on betraying us and taking the printout from us."

"So now, we've escaped them. Do you think they'll release Agent Dandrough?"

"Probably not, but it wouldn't matter if they did. I disabled all the robots except this one. And he's working for us now, which is how I escaped."

"We tried to get away from them," said Robert. "That's why they told us to tell you that we'd escaped."

"Everyone was double crossing each other!" exclaimed Nell.

"That's politics, sweetie," said Lysander.

"So now what?" asked Robert.

"I need to read through the printouts and figure out what they can tell me about the mystery of the Antelope Valley. That's going to be boring to watch."

"We can all relax then?"

"Yes."

"What about Agent Dandrough?"

"He's nullified for now," said Lysander. "His type is dependent on the team they send back. I think the only reason they send a human agent is to keep an eye on things, but the humans always try to run things. The robots would be far more dangerous if left to operate on their own."

"Unit Eleven, you can shut down for now. I will activate you when I need you."

"Affirmative." At that point Unit Eleven slouched slightly and stopped moving.

"We spent years trying to hack their robots," said Lysander. "You did it in days."

"Don't they have sonic screwdrivers in your time?"

"What?"

"I guess that means no. I used a sonic screwdriver. It came from my mysterious benefactor. I think he knew I would need it. I think he wanted me to be ready for more than just Janus."

"Your benefactor has given you some pretty powerful tools, I wonder what his stake in this is," said Lysander.

"I don't think so. I don't get that feeling from him."

"But you've never met him. He might have some angle that you don't know about."

"Even so, he's helped me more than once. I'm inclined to trust him until we see evidence to the contrary. So now, I think the next step would be boring for you to watch."

"Why?"

"Dad, all I'm going to do is analyze data."

"So have the computer do it. I told you this is one of the best computers in the world. Its only limitation is the lack of a real language verbal interface. It has to be in simple language for it to understand your commands."

"It can do this for me?"

"Of course. The only reason we didn't want to use it before was because Agent Dandrough was chasing us."

"Dad, that's awesome news. That will save me so much time."

"Computer, activate."

The lights on the handheld unit went on.

"Computer, analyze data recently processed. Find a common focus for the trends."

"Working," came the voice from the computer.

"Hey, it's like the new Smart Phones," said Robert.

"Yes, it is in a way, rather like the way Babbage's difference engine is to a modern computer," said Lysander.

"What?"

"Computer, describe the Babbage difference engine."

"The Babbage difference engine was a mechanical computer designed to calculate polynomial equations. Do you want me to describe the full encyclopedic entry?"

"No, computer, that is sufficient."

"How much data is on that computer," asked Nell.

"Oh, by today's standards, several encyclopedias at least. We made sure that we would have all the information necessary to survive in this time before we left."

"So how much information is in there Dad?"

"Um, complete records since the beginning of the twentieth century. Before that records get very unreliable but a large amount since the Renaissance is also in there."

"Dad, that's amazing. You know how much I can learn from that?"

"No, Nell, that's why I kept it from you. Knowing too much about the future is a dangerous thing. Spoilers. If you know too much, you could really imperil your own history, like what you said to Dandruff."

Nell started to pout at that, but Robert put his hand on her shoulder. "It's what you've told me all along, too much power in one person's hands is not a good thing."

"You've had it all this time?"

"Notice Nell how little I've used it. If I wanted to I could win the next mega jackpot, because that is included in the history we downloaded. We requested all data when we programmed it, and it complied. Like I said, this unit isn't a smart unit. Oh, now that you know, Computer, be ready for additional programming."

"Ready."

"Computer, recognize new voice, Nell Rothbard. Give the computer a vocal sample."

"Uh, hello computer."

"Voice sample recorded and filed as Nell Rothbard."

"Grant Nell Rothbard access to all scientific data, but no historical data in advance of the current date."

"Affirmative," said the Computer.

"There you go Nell. You can now use the computer a lot more easily. No more plodding around with a manual interface. But you're not to use this for school assignments, that would be cheating."

"Dad, do you use it for your economic analysis?"

"I did at first. I needed to in order to fit in, but I made sure that my analysis was sufficiently watered down for me to be considered better than average without being perfect. That would have blown my cover right away, just like winning the lottery."

"Wow." Nell shook her head. "Back to business. We need to find the secret of the Antelope Valley before those Family creeps do. Oh, and Nicholas said something interesting while we were still somewhat friendly. He told me to be careful searching for the secret of the Antelope Valley, because if you make yourself too obvious then the secret might come looking for you. I don't know exactly what he meant by that."

"The secret will come looking for you?" asked Robert.

"Yes. I think that we're closing in on something even worse than what we've gone though so far. But we have to, before anyone else does."

"Eleanor," said Lysander. "What will you do if you find it?"

"If I find it?"

"Yes. What will you do?"

"Um, try to keep it safe I guess."

"Safe from whom?"

"From anyone who might try to use it for their own gain."

"By using it yourself?"

"I hadn't thought of that. What would you do dad?"

"Throw the ring into the cracks of doom, if I had the choice. Or I'd like to think I would, but I am only human."

"Look at everything I've been doing though. First I save everyone from Janus, the whole valley, maybe the whole world. Then I'm the one who saved you from Dandruff, and then from the Families. If anyone has earned what we might find there, I have. If the Families get their hands on it, or the government, they'll only misuse it, better that I use it for good purposes first."

Nell saw the look her father was giving her.

"Dad, haven't I proven myself by now? Everything I've done so far has been for good reasons. I've put myself at risk for everyone else so many times now. Don't I deserve some sort of reward?"

"Nell, look at your bracelet?"

"What?" Nell looked down. The stones were illuminated again, this time in a different color than before. They were glowing an odd blue.

"What the heck?" asked Nell, startled. As she looked at the bracelet the glow faded and the stones returned to normal.

"What was I saying?" she asked.

"I think that wasn't you," said Lysander. "I raised you better than that. But if what Nicholas Kotz said is right, I think the valley is now looking for us."

"Why did it focus on me then?"

"Because you are the one with the most ground for temptation," said Lysander. "You inherited both intelligence and some mild psychic ability from your mom, and your idealism and stubbornness from me. Of course you'd be the first target."

"Oh crap, now I don't want to find it so much."

"Which means that you should find it first. Whatever it is, it will probably try again. And it will probably try on each of us as well. And it will try on the Families if they get too close. We need to find it first to try to stop it."

"But how will we stop it?"

"I don't know that part yet."

"If I may say something," said Robert.

"Robert, you've been a big help to us, but I think things ate going to get even more dangerous. Leave this to me and Nell."

"Nothing doing," said Robert. "Yeah, I got in because Janus dragged me in, but I didn't have to help with Dandruff and the Families. I'm in with Nell."

"A very admirable sentiment."

"No, the way I see it, Nell shook off whatever it is only because she had both of us. She needs both you and me, and if it starts working on us too then I'll need both of you and you'll need both of us. I think only working together we have a chance."

Nell nodded. "He was the only one to notice my bracelet," she said. "Without him, I might have been drawn in. He's stuck through this with us even though he didn't have to. He's a part of this adventure. Stop trying to send him away, dad."

Lysander sighed. "It's two against one. Well, democracy is only the second worst form of government, ahead of all the others."

"Besides, I think this might work, dad. I saw the Families work. They don't trust each other. We support each other. That might be the reason they haven't found it yet."

Chapter Twenty

Realizing that they might be influenced by whatever it is that they were hunting put some new urgency into their search. Fortunately the computer had figured out a way that they might figure out where to search for whatever it is they are looking for. It did not have a location yet, but it did have a few places to be searched for more information.

It seemed odd, but there were two insane asylums on opposite ends of the Antelope Valley, both of which were on the top of the list as places to search. Since the one on the west side was marginally closer, they decided to search that one first.

They eventually found it. As they piled out of Lysander's car, he said "I thought that the church was out of the way."

"It makes sense that there would be little around the critical sites," said Nell. "If my theory is right, then the drain would be most intense around them and therefore there would be very little else around them."

"Like being the epicenter of a blight," said Robert. "I used to think people were joking about the event horizon."

"So did I," said Nell.

"I thought that the jokes were a side effect of living in a Null Zone," said Lysander. "I never dreamed that there would be more to it then that. I should have done a more thorough research job when I went looking for a time and place to settle down. Unfortunately we were in a bit of a rush."

"Why did you choose this place?" asked Robert.

"Long story. Best answer is Null Zones are great places to hide. Nothing important ever happens in them."

"That's why this place looks so much like one," said Nell. "Anything unusual gets sucked in. Ok, dad, hand over the computer. Computer, activate."

The computer responded with "Activated."

"Unit Eleven, scan the area for all energy readings. Computer, access all readings from Unit Eleven. Correlate all readings to previous calculations."

It looked like nothing was happening, but Nell was used to that. The robot did not move unless it was necessary to do so, and the computer had no obvious external indications.

"Scan completed," said Unit Eleven.

"Calculations completed," said the computer.

"Display ramifications of additional data."

Nell studied the screen. "The computer is showing insufficient data. We need to move to the next site."

"That's all the way on the other side of town," grumbled Lysander. "Do you how much fossil fuel we've consumed over the last few days with this business?"

"Dad, let's get going. We'll skip down town. Take Avenue E across the valley."

The drive was relatively uneventful, if not for the fact that there were more than a normal number of sheriff deputies patrolling the roads. Since Lysander was driving very carefully there was no cause for any of them to act, but more than one seemed intent on following Lysander for several miles before turning another direction. Finally as they passed through the town of Littlerock they were alone again. They arrived at the asylum and repeated the scans. Still the computer indicated that more information was necessary to get a result.

"I have an idea," said Nell. "I think if we also examine the abandoned church, then we might finally get enough data."

"If that will finish all this driving around, it might be worth it," said Lysander.

The drive to the abandoned church was much like the drive to the Littlerock asylum, along with the extra police presence on the roads. This presence increased until they got to the church which was surrounded by police. They could not get near it, so they stopped down the road.

"Unit Eleven, can you scan from this distance?"

"Affirmative."

"Then do so."

As they stood near the car watching the police surround he abandoned church, two of the police officers broke off from the crowd and approached the four of them.

"Sir, please state your business here," said one of the officers.

"It's a free country," said Lysander. "What's going on up there?"

"Police business," said the other officer. "We cannot allow people near that location. Your presence here is sufficient grounds for questioning. I'm going to have to ask you to identify yourselves."

"Really?" said Robert. "Why is it suspicious?"

"We're the ones asking the questions here," said the first officer. "License, registration, and insurance."

"But you can only ask for that at a traffic stop," said Lysander.

"We saw you drive up. We believe your driving was reckless, and as such we have grounds to ask you for identification."

Lysander pulled out his wallet, opened it, and handed his license to the officer.

"I'm going to have to reach into my glove box to get you my registration and insurance. Please try hard not to suddenly panic."

"Get them."

Lysander opened the passenger door and opened the glove box. As he pulled out the documents the first officer said "Is that marijuana smoke I smell? I'm going to have to search your car. Please stand aside Mr. Rothbard."

The second officer called in for a background check on Lysander over his radio, giving all the information from the driver's license. He waited with his hand on the holster of his firearm while he waited for the report.

"The car's clean," came the first officer.

"I'm still waiting for the report," said the second officer.

"And you two kids, do you have names?" asked the first officer.

"That's really none of your business," said Robert.

"Yes, it is. We need to identify anyone in the vicinity. If you do not answer our questions we will have no choice but to take you to the station for questioning there."

"Scan complete," said Unit Eleven.

"What did he say?" asked the second officer.

"Nothing," said Nell. "He's autistic, leave him alone."

"We'll decide who we question."

"Dad, I think we need to get out of here," Nell muttered to her dad.

"I think you're right, but unless we want to hurt them I don't see anything we can do."

Nell rubbed her eyes and sighed. She took advantage of her eyes being closed to collect her focus. She concentrated and opened her eyes.

"You don't suspect us," she said. "We're not important. You know we're not important. We can leave now."

"What?" said the first officer, obviously confused.

"We're not important."

"We decide who is important," said the second officer, although he seemed uncertain too.

Suddenly the radio called back the results of the background check, breaking the tension entirely and causing Nell to lose her focus. Lysander's background check came back clean.

"I guess you are free to go,' said the first officer. "But I would advise you to stay away from here. You don't want to get in the way of what we're doing."

"Ok kids, back in the car," said Lysander. Once everyone was in he carefully turned the car around and drove away as was safely possible.

"What's going on back there?" asked Robert.

"Isn't it obvious? We're getting too close. Computer, analyze data from Unit Eleven. Somehow it activated the police to guard the church and prevent us from finding out more."

"Or maybe there's someone else in play," said Lysander. "It's pretty obvious that the Families are connected to government, and they are probably watching us as well. Our search pattern probably indicates that we are getting closer. We might want to meet with them again before we set off on the final leg of the journey."

"Talk to them again?" asked Nell.

"Of course. If it is them they're doing a good job of raising the tension for us. Who knows how far they will go. Organizations of that kind don't get very far unless they are willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead."

"And you want us to work with them?"

"Sometimes you have to do things you don't want when it is for the greater good. It's not pretty, but you have to do your best with what you have. The only question is if you keep yourself pure in the process."

"Analysis complete," said the computer. Nell studied it briefly.

"I think we've got a location," said Nell. "If I'm reading this correctly, then we need to go to Rosamond. Now what's in Rosamond?"

"Nothing much," said Robert. "Just a feline zoo, the entrance to the Air Force base, a few ghost towns that don't exist anymore."

"It's giving me coordinates. We need to see if we can get to them."

"Then this is the time to contact the families before they make things even harder for us," said Lysander. "Do you remember their phone number/"

"I never forget anything," said Nell. She pulled out her cell phone and called Nicholas Kots again.

"What do you want?" He sounded irritated.

"We want to talk. Truce. Call off the sheriffs and we will meet with you. We think we're on to something."

"You're kidding. We've been at this for years."

"Then let's meet so we can compare notes. But I don't want any problems along the way. Lancaster Boulevard in front of the library."

"No tricks on your side either."

"No problem. We'll let you know what we know."

With that Nell hung up the phone.

"The library in Lancaster?' asked Lysander.

"Yep. It's near a few good places to eat also. I'm famished."

"Me too," said Robert.

The tension was up in the car as they drove back into town. They pulled onto the slow Lancaster Boulevard and turned at the library and parked behind it. The four of them got out and walked to the front of the library. There they saw Nicholas, Jessica, and Alan.

"Where's the muscle?" asked Robert.

"You brought yours and we know it would take a lot to overcome him," said Alan.

"Should we go inside?" asked Nicholas.

"I wanted to get a bite to eat first," said Nell. "We've been running around all day. There's food just down the street in walking distance."

"I hope you're not planning on wasting our time," said Jessica.

"Of course not. We think we've found something, and we have to go to Rosamond to figure it out. We wanted to confirm this with you, and maybe you can think of something there that might actually be important enough for this mystery to be centered there."

"If it works out, we'll forgive everything," said Nicholas. "So you need food. Then we look over your data."

Chapter Twenty One

They never actually settled in the library, but decided that comparing notes over a meal was a good way to spend the day. Nell described the readings and the analysis to Nicholas, Jessica, and Alan.

"Fortunately we were able to get close enough to the ruined church to get a reading anyway. Those police you sent there were quite suspicious of anyone getting near it."

"We didn't send the police, Nell." Alan looked pensive. "We did ensure that the report on your father came back clean. This is worrisome, we're not used to other people or groups pulling strings to get things done. That is what we do.

"And how do you pull strings?" asked Lysander.

"That's none of your business," answered Jessica.

"And I don't care how they do it, dad, as long as they're not doing it to us. This time they did it for us so that's ok with me."

"You're pretty clever," said Nicholas. "I hope that you can be convinced to join us. Not right now, just putting the offer out there. So there are several loci for this, and you've found some of them. Not a bad bit of work, but you did have more than a little bit of help. We've found some of those, and a few you haven't, but it took a great deal more work considering that we had to do our analysis by hand. But you haven't told us everything because otherwise you wouldn't have called this meeting."

"You're right, we haven't told you everything," said Nell. "It's good to know what there are more places we could search, but I don't think we'll need them. I think we've finally triangulated sufficiently to track down the source of all of this weirdness."

"There's nothing weird in the AV because it all goes there," said Robert.

"Speaking of weird, how's Dandrough?" asked Nell.

"He's rather upset at us, but he's not fighting because he saw the shape of his robots. We promised we'd have them restored if he behaved." Nicholas grinned at that one.

"Good idea," said Nell.

"He keeps pressing us for more information on your grandfather though. We told him we're not authorized to tell him anything, that he'll have to ask you. He keeps insisting that we're interfering with police business and that we should take him to you immediately."

"He's half right," said Lysander. "He is a government agent of sorts."

"We're not familiar with the agency. We thought we had a good handle on all this sort of stuff around the world."

"Oh you do, don't worry about that. He's not exactly in any of the agencies that you are familiar with."

"Is he from a different planet?"

Lysander choked on that one. When he caught his breath he said "Um, yeah, that's it exactly. You found us out."

"So don't tell us, but it is quite clear if you know what to look for that you're not from around here."

"Dad, Mr. Kotz, stop trying to figure each other out. We need to figure this out. I was about to tell you where I think we need to go."

They looked at each other suspiciously but decided to drop their argument for the moment.

"So where is it Nell?" asked Robert.

"It is underground. A fair ways underground. Do you know of any caves in the area that might be implicated in this? I honestly don't know about any. It would take a lot of digging to get to it, and I'm not that handy with a shovel."

Alan pondered. "Is it north of here?"

"You know what I'm talking about," said Nell.

"I have an idea. There are several abandoned mines in the Rosamond area. This place was once a thriving trade hub, a few centuries ago. If the mines are part of it then it would fit. I'm not sure when this started, but they may have disturbed something with those mines."

"And when it was disturbed, it started its work," said Lysander. "That would explain why the military set up there."

"I thought it was the dry lake bed," said Robert.

"That too, "said Alan. "You can have more than one reason to do something. In fact it is useful to have several motives, so you can honestly confess to one motive in order to hide another one."

"Of course," said Lysander. "Classic misdirection, look at one hand while the other does the dirty work."

"So back to the mines," said Nell. "Is there any way we can get to the mines? I knew there was once mining in the valley. Some of the towns are even named after the mines, such as Boron. But I wouldn't even know where to begin to look to find the old mines."

"We can find them," said Alan. "They aren't secret. I'm not sure how we can find them in the minds, there's a lot of ground there to cover."

"If we still have Unit Eleven he has some pretty good scanning equipment."

"Unit Eleven? The robot?" asked Jessica.

"Yes, why?" replied Nell.

"Where is the robot?"

"He's right there. Wait, where is it?"

They all looked around. Unit Eleven was not in the restaurant anymore.

"Did anyone see it leave?" asked Nell.

Nobody replied, but a few people shook their heads.

"Ok, that makes it harder to find, but not impossible."

"How will you locate it now?"

Nell held up her bracelet. "It's not perfect, but this is useful. It detects psychic energy. It is what helped us defeat the guy from the spaceship that we were both looking for."

"So it was psychic?"

"Yes. Quiet, dad, they need to know this part. At least part of the threat is psychic. So we need to be ready in case it tries to attack us that way. Advanced technology disappears, probably taken by this, and it is also psychic. Janus was just psychic, and Dandrough was just technology. This is both, so it's the biggest threat of them all. We had a tough time against Janus, and also against Dandrough. We need their help with this, whether we like it or not. And if we're going to get their help we need to fill them in on a few details at least. Ok, I'm psychic, and so is this bracelet. That's how I knew that you were planning on double crossing us. So you don't have nearly as many secrets from us as you thought you did. This bracelet glows near psychic energy, you notice it is flickering a little even now. That's because I'm wearing it. I also have a sonic screwdriver, which is a very useful multi-tool that I'm still learning how to use. And that's my dad's computer. So far none of them have disappeared, but I'm not confident that we'll get to keep them much longer so we've got to act fast. We are absolutely certain that whatever we're looking for knows we are on its trail, and I'd rather get to it before it gets to us. So quit trying to one up each other and let's work together, alright? If you can't figure out how to work together then I'll take Robert and do it myself. So Dad, Alan, are you in?"

"Alright Nell, I'm in," said Lysander.

"Speaking for the Families, we're also in," said Alan.

"Good. Now how long until you can get us the information on the mines? The faster the better because whatever it is we're looking for is on the move. We need to get to it before it gets to us."

"I'll have the information in a few days," said Alan. "Do you think that you can hold on to those items until then?"

"So far so good. I'm wearing the bracelet, and if it starts to disappear I'm pretty sure I'll know. The big risk for me is that it tried to influence my behavior once already and it might try again. I have my dad and my friend to watch over me in case that happens so I'm not overly worried. Perhaps I'm protected somehow, I don't know."

"Then we should all go home and prepare for some spelunking," said Alan. "It may be a mine, but it is an abandoned mine and it will not be all that safe. I suppose it would be useless to try to convince you to not come along?"

"Completely useless. The tough thing will be determining which mine is the right one."

"Just give me the nearest surface coordinates and I'll try to figure out which mine got closest to that location. Can you do that for me?"

Nell pulled an index card out of her pocket and wrote on it briefly. She then handed it to Alan, who looked at it and raised his eyebrow.

"You don't even want to check with your computer."

"Why? I saw the resulting readout, and I don't forget things very easily."

"Eidetic recall?"

"Are you surprised by that?"

"Not at this point. Very well, we will work on finding the mine that came closest to that particular latitude and longitude, and once we do we will contact you. Are we all agreed?"

"Since I can tell that all three of you are not planning any double cross then we are agreed."

They got up and left the restaurant. They parted ways shortly after they got out the door. Finally Lysander burst out with what he was holding in the whole time.

"Eleanor, you don't know what you are getting in to with these guys. I know their type. Every underground movement has people like them and they are dangerous."

"Dad, don't you trust me?"

In a much softer voice he replied "Yes, Nelly, I do. It's them I don't trust."

"Dad, was mom also psychic?"

"Yes."

"Was she ever fooled?"

"Only by people with psychic dampers, but she could tell when those were being worn so she was on her guard."

"I don't think those have been invented yet. They're not about to double cross us in the short term. We might have a problem with them in the future but right now they agree we need each other too much for either of us to turn on the other."

"You're sure?"

"Absolutely."

"And don't forget about me," said Robert. "Don't you dare try to leave me behind, I'm coming with you to the mines. There's three of them, you need three people as well."

"Robert," began Lysander.

"No Mr. Rothbard, I'm in all the way. This is no different. You wanted me to pretend to be a time agent."

"Actually that was Nell's idea."

"And you didn't stop her. I did it. I get to be part of this. I'm coming with you to the mines. Besides, I want to know what's down there."

"Alright, alright. I'm being lectured by a couple of kids."

Nell and Robert grinned at each other, knowing that they won this argument.

Chapter Twenty Two

After the meeting was over, Robert took himself home explaining that his parents were getting annoyed at how much time he was spending away from home. Lysander drove while Nell concentrated on her bracelet, seeing if she could get it to glow in other colors and not succeeding, but getting a much more steady and clear white light as she practiced. Suddenly she felt a jolt that broke her concentration. She looked up and looked out the window.

"Dad, where are we going?"

"We're going home, of course."

"But this isn't the way home? Where are we?"

Lysander suddenly snapped to full attention. "You're right, we're completely out of town. The last thing I remember was turning left on tenth street west, and suddenly we're out here."

"But where is here?"

"Hold on, there's a street sign up ahead. Damn, we're out at sixtieth. How'd we get here?"

"I felt a jolt."

"I see. Well, I'm going to turn south so that we can get home. Let's see what happens."

They drove south for a while, and Nell felt the jolt again. She gasped as it happened.

"Nell, what's wrong?"

"It happened again. We're not on the road we were on just a minute ago."

"Really? Well I'll be damned, you're right. And I didn't even notice."

"I think that's part of it. Whatever is going on, it's messing with your mind. You never noticed that it happened."

"Well, I'm going to try to turn another way."

When they reached sixtieth Lysander decided to turn north. After a few minutes of driving Nell felt the jolt again.

"There you go," she said. "It happened again."

"It did? Wait, there's that same bush again, the same one we past the last few times. I don't think will be able to go home."

"The Families did say that if we go looking for the mystery of the Antelope Valley, it will go looking for us as well. I think that is what is happening now."

"What do you think?"

"I think we have no choice."

"Just what I was thinking."

Lysander drove without trying to change the direction. At an intersection the blinker went on by itself, so he turned in that direction. That happened a couple more times and then Lysander said "I think I know where we are going."

"Where?"

"Back to the abandoned church. Whatever is steering us, it wants us to go to the church. One of the focus points of this mystery."

"I wonder if this is part of how it snatches things."

"I doubt it. There were no tracks around the missing ship to indicate that it had moved. I think this might be different."

"It will be quite dark by the time we get there. The sun is already setting."

They drove in silence. Lysander was no longer surprised with the directions he was following. The ruins of the church came into view and they noticed in the twilight that there appeared to be a faint glow from within.

Lysander stopped the car, and they both got out. With the headlights off the glow was slightly more pronounced.

"Here goes," said Lysander. Nell held on to his hand and they walked into the ruins of the church.

They found the room that the glow was coming from. In the middle of the room was a woman, faintly luminescent, kneeling in the middle of the floor. She looked up as they entered.

"Welcome Eleanor Rothbard."

"And who are you?" asked Nell.

"Eleanor Rothbard, I am the Antelope Valley."

"What?"

"I am the incarnation and the essence of the Antelope Valley. You may call me the protective spirit."

"Are you the reason that Janus' ship disappeared?"

"Yes, I remove dangerous items from this valley, remove threats, so that I can keep this valley safe. The people of this world are not yet ready for that ship, so I removed it."

"Dandrough's robots too?"

"Yes, Agent Derrick Dandrough's robots as well. I have them safely stored away from those who would abuse them."

"And what do you want from us?"

"I want to give you a warning. I know that you are working with the Three Families in your effort to find me. I do not want those people to find where I store dangerous items, yet to remove them would create more of a disturbance. I would ask you to lead them away."

Lysander and Nell looked at each other.

"What do you think, Nelly?"

"I want to know. Was it you trying to influence me a while ago, when I suddenly got greedy and wanted your treasure trove for myself? It caused the stones on my bracelet to glow blue." Nell held up her bracelet, which was barely flickering.

"No, it was not me. I do know what happened and can help you. It is a holdover from your fight with Janus."

"How so?"

"When you meet minds as deeply as the two of you did, there are lasting effects. He influenced you, and you influenced him. There is a little bit of Janus still inside you, the impression he made on you. And if given an opportunity it will express itself. It is you, just you as you would be if you were Janus. Do not worry, there is on lasting link between you and Janus, but you will always be influenced by your contact."

"How horrible."

"Janus agrees, because there is an impression of your own virtue on him, and it is causing him problems of conscience that he never had before. He was not expecting the contact to be that deep either, but he has not been defeated that way before."

Nell looked down with a little pout of concern. She did not want to be influenced that way.

"Eleanor Rothbard, do not worry. Your virtue is stronger than the greed that was implanted by Janus."

"So what do you want from us?" asked Lysander.

"Lysander Rothbard, although I do not wish it your daughter has been granted access to visit, if she chooses, but I want her to not include the Three Families. If you can find some way to leave them behind I want you to do so."

"We have to visit. We need those robots back. Agent Dandrough cannot leave without them and we really want him to leave. If he doesn't go back then more people like him will visit. Too many than maybe even you can handle, and way too many for us. We have to go find your home."

"That is not easily done. Do you really need those robots?"

"Yes. Can you release one?"

"Only if you come to retrieve it."

"It might be easier if you go back with them."

"It would be death if I went back. You can give us one of them back?"

"I can only collect, sending anything back is at this time too difficult. But if you do come to visit me then you may have the robot back."

"So can we go home now?" asked Lysander.

"I have given you your message, that is why I brought you here, you are free to go if you desire."

Lysander took hold of Nell's hand and led her out of the ruins of the church. When she looked back she noticed that the light had gone out behind her.

"What do you make of that?" asked Lysander.

"Dad, I couldn't read anything. I couldn't tell if she was telling the truth, or lying, or anything. It's like she wasn't even there."

"Curious. And what do you think of what she said?"

"I don't know. I never realized I was psychic before, but it makes sense now, that I could tell if people were lying or telling the truth. I can't tell this time. I really don't know what to make of it."

"Welcome to how the rest of us experience life."

"Was mom also psychic? Did she ever get fooled?"

"Oh yes, she certainly was. That's probably where you got your own talent from. And she could get fooled by someone wearing psychic dampers. They haven't been invented yet. Nelly, the rest of us don't get to tell if someone is lying, we have to use our own judgment."

"What do you think dad?"

"I think she is trying to keep us from visiting. I think she is trying to throw us off course. I wasn't that interested in visiting before, I just wanted to get rid of Dandruff and get the Families to leave us alone. Now I suspect that this is a ploy to convince us to give up on this quest. I think we should go ahead."

"You always suspect people of having ulterior motives?"

"Only those with power, dear."

They got back into the car. Once they were on the road again, and a safe distance away from the church, Lysander spoke again.

"I also think that she was trying to exploit our suspicion of the Families," he said. "At this point though it is too late to change plans. Whether we like it of not we're going with the families. We need them to tell us where the mine is, just like they need us to help them find where in the mine it is. We're stuck with each other, whether we like it or not. If she really wanted us to visit, then she would have had no problem with the Families coming along, or she would have given us better instructions on how to find where she is. This was a giant ruse."

"You didn't say so earlier."

"She might be able to hear me now, but I'm gambling that her hearing is not as good this far away from a focus point."

"You do all this without being able to read people?"

"I have to. That's the way the rest of us live. You have to rely on what you do know, which is just the words, instead of focusing so much on what you are missing."

"What do you make of it dad?"

"I'm not sure. If it really is the embodiment of the valley, that would imply something supernatural. I can't tell you much about that. But if it was an incarnation or an embodiment, then shouldn't you be able to feel it? But you didn't. That makes me think this is a projection, and there is indeed something she isn't telling us."

Chapter Twenty Three

As it turns out, even if they had intended to find a way to leave the Families behind, circumstances did not allow it. The very next day they were contacted to inform them that the Families had determined, based on old mining records, which mine has the most promise of bringing them closest to the convergence point determined by Nell's calculations, and that they wanted to meet at the store front location again to go to the mine immediately.

Nell, Robert, and Lysander stepped out of the car and walked in to the apparently vacant store. Inside they found Nicholas, Alan, and Jessica, as well as the six guards that they had encountered the last time.

"Um, what are they doing here?" asked Robert.

"They're coming with us," said Alan. "Security, technical support, added muscle. They're useful and they can help us on this mission."

"No they're not," said Nell. "No way. Three of us, three of you, or I'm not going. And you need me. I need you, you need me."

"Now be reasonable," said Alan. "We don't know what to expect out there."

"No, you never mentioned they were coming. They're staying behind."

Alan looked up at Lysander for help. "Can you explain this to her? She's being completely unreasonable."

"No, I think her request is quite fair," said Lysander. "We trusted you enough to give you the information you wanted. Now you're telling us that three professionals like yourself will not return the favor and insist on out-numbering us by three to one? You trust our data."

"Crunching numbers is one thing."

"I stand by my daughter. If they come, we do not."

Nicholas led Alan and Jessica a short distance away to confer. Nobody could hear what they were saying, but they did throw a dark look at Nell occasionally as they conferred. Finally they returned.

"You win, little girl," said Alan. "You get your way. Alright men, you are dismissed."

The hired hands looked relieved at the announcement, especially since they remembered their last encounter.

"So what now, leader?" asked Alan rather sarcastically.

"I assume you had transportation for everyone," said Nell.

"I'll go get it," said Nicholas. He walked part of the way through the parking lot and came back driving a van large enough to hold twelve people. Everyone got into the van. The ride passed in silence, as the tension was too thick for anyone to speak too much. Nicholas drove across the county line towards Rosamond, but turned away and drove on some unpaved roads for a while. Eventually, after a bumpy ride, Nicholas stopped.

"We're here, everybody out."

As everyone got out and assembled, Nell looked around for the mine entrance. There was graffiti and trash surrounding it, as well as a small pile of tumbleweeds and other dead plants around the mine.

"I hope you remembered to bring flashlights, there are no lights inside the mine. There once were, but that system has since decayed significantly." Alan smirked at Nell and her companions. Lysander opened his bag and pulled out flashlights for himself, Nell, and Robert.

"So you remembered that. Ok, let's go in."

As they went in, they noticed that the graffiti and litter continued for a fair distance past the entrance of the cave. The wooden support beams were still intact, although they were dried out and cracking. Eventually the graffiti tapered off to some occasional tagging to show how far people went into the mine before turning around. There tunnel then split, and after consulting the map Alan turned away from the previous course.

This new tunnel was a lot more barren and narrower, but Alan led them on without hesitation. They stopped seeing any tagging as they descended. The tunnel was a gentle downward slope with occasional turns.

Eventually Alan stopped short.

"This is the end of the official maps. I have a guess on where we might go, but I thought this would be a perfect time for our expert to try to figure out which way to go. Let's see if you know what you are doing."

Nell frowned at the implied insult, but concentrated. She looked at her bracelet and fell into the accustomed trance. She tried to remember the glowing being she saw in the abandoned church. She concentrated on her desire to find the location of Janus' craft. Finally get got an inkling of where to go next.

"This way," she said. She led them down one of the corridors.

"An interesting choice," muttered Alan. But in the darkness it became apparent that it must have been the right direction as Nell's bracelet started to glow blue, very faintly, but in the darkness it was unmistakable.

They reached another intersection. This time Nell chose more quickly. They continued on until the reached a dead end of a brick wall.

"So, did I pass your test?" asked Nell.

"Yes, you did," said Alan.

"So where are we?"

"If I figured correctly, that is one of the underground tunnels that the military dug to travel secretly between Palmdale and Edwards. For most people they are an urban legend. I've been, well, that's another matter. Now this is where it would have come in handy to have those extra people with us. They could have gotten us through this wall, but you had to be stubborn and insist we leave them behind. So what now?"

"I don't know. I didn't count on this."

"See, that's what happens when amateurs try to do the job of professionals. So now I guess we have to go back and get them."

"I guess."

"No, we don't have to," said Lysander. "I can handle this much." He reached into his bag and pulled out a small gun of an unusual design. It was tiny and had no obvious source of ammunition. When Lysander held it, the very short barrel stuck out from between his index and middle finger.

"Your idea would have been far too noisy. This will be completely silent."

Lysander pointed the weapon high up on the wall. At first that portion of the wall glowed faintly, and then a hole opened as if the wall were melting. Lysander held the weapon steady and slowly lowered the beam until he had created a hole that was almost a foot across.

"Now we wait for it to cool," Lysander whispered. "Then we can look through it and see what is on the other side."

"Why did you cut that hole so high up?" whispered Nicholas.

"So that they can't easily see us either," said Lysander. "We control the terms of this encounter as much as we can."

After a moment it had cooled. Lysander said "Nell, get on my shoulders and look through that hole, tell us what is on the other side." Lysander knelt down and Nell climbed on his shoulders. Slowly, carefully, he stood up braced against the wall.

Nell grasped the edge of the hole and stuck her head through. After a moment she pulled her head back in. "Let me down."

Once she was back on her feet, she described the scene. "It's a very large tunnel, very wide, paved. Lines on the floor. It looks big enough to drive a couple of semis through it. There are pipes along the tops of the walls, probably power conduits. There are lights through there, but very widely spaced. It looks too clean to be abandoned. There are probably patrols that come through every so often. I think I saw a security camera, we'll need to do something about that."

"Open the portal further then," said Nicholas.

"I will, no problem," said Lysander. He pointed the gun at the wall again and slowly melted. As soon as the hole was large enough and low enough Lysander stopped his work. "Wait, here, I need to secure this entrance." He pulled a curtain out of his bag, stepped through the hole, and stuck it to the wall over the hole, then got back in the mine shaft.

"How is a curtain going to help?" asked Jessica.

"It's a chameleon curtain. From the other side it looks exactly like the wall around it. This will give us security as we plan our next move. So, what's next?"

"We have been led to believe that the military tunnel intersected this mine shaft. You just confirmed it." Alan looked at his map, although it didn't have any information for him. "The key at this point is to find where the other side of this tunnel is. There is no guarantee that this leads straight through. We need to find where it is, create a second hole, and then proceed. Do you have anything in your bag of tricks that can help you with that?"

"Probably, just you wait here."

"What? Why?"

"The more people out in that tunnel, the greater the risk. You are all protected quite well right now from most forms of detection. The technology that can pierce that cloak hasn't been invented yet. Robert will stay here with the three of you, Nell and I will go out and find the rest of this mine shaft."

Nell and Lysander slipped through the curtain into the military tunnel. Nell pulled out her sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the nearest security camera. After a few seconds of a high pitched noise she turned it off with a satisfied grin.

"The camera is now locked in a three minute loop from ten minutes ago. That will give us even more time to work."

"I don't have anything to help find the tunnel though," said Lysander. "And I don't want to go back to them empty handed."

"I can handle this," said Nell. "That part is actually easy. All I have to do is listen to the tone when I point my screwdriver at the wall. It's just like finding a stud at home. Plus I can look at the readouts to double check."

It wasn't as easy as anticipated. Nell slowly swept from the middle of the floor to the ceiling opposite the entrance and frowned. She walked several feet up the tunnel and repeated the performance, then several more. She looked at the reading on the sonic screwdriver's display and frowned. She moved back down and went several feet past the secret entrance and tested again, then moved several more feet down. She moved back up several feet and pointed. "As far as I can tell, I think it is there."

Lysander pulled out his laser and started to drill a hole, when Nell pulled his arm. "Dad, soldiers are coming, look." She pointed at an approaching set of headlight.

"Then back into the hole."

"We don't have time. Put away your gun and follow my lead."

Chapter Twenty Four

Very soon the vehicle came into view, it was a military hummer. Nell walked boldly towards the car, and watched calmly as it screeched to a halt and four Airmen jumped out pointing M-16s at them. "Put your hands where we can see them!" yelled out the leader. Nell and Lysander raised their hands. "Get down on the ground!"

"If you would just let me show you my ID," started Nell.

"Down on the ground!"

"I'm reaching for my ID."

"Don't move!"

"I'm getting my ID now."

Slowly Nell reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the wallet with the psychic paper. She was nervous with all the guns pointing at her, but she held the wallet above her head and opened it with one hand. An airman reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling it roughly the full length from her body. One of the airmen, probably the leader, held Nell's hand and looked at the psychic paper.

"Oh, sorry about that Ma'am, we weren't informed that you would be here today," he said. "Stand down, they're clear."

"Thank you sergeant," said Nell. She brushed off her shoulders. "Good job, you did your job as required. But you weren't told about us?" She sounded irritated.

"No ma'am. If you could come with us to the desk we can get this straightened out in no time."

"I'm quite busy here, if you don't mind. You go ahead and check with the desk while we continue our work."

"I'd like to ma'am but communications appears to be out in this tunnel."

"Then go to the desk and check your orders. Go on, get back in your car."

"Yes ma'am. Airman Smith, you stay here with Agent Jackson and her assistant. The rest of us will go to the desk to verify."

The airmen, except for Airman Smith, got back into the hummer. The engine started and then the car went down the tunnel and away. Nell and Lysander walked back to where they had started to burn the second hole before.

"So what do you thin now?" asked Lysander.

"I'll think of something. I know. You keep working on the new tunnel and I'll distract him with the security camera." Nell turned towards the security police officer and said "Hey, could you look at this and tell me what you think?"

Nell led the airman towards the security camera while Lysander lagged behind to study the spot on the wall where he had been drilling earlier.

"I think this unit is defective," said Nell. "That's probably why your communications are down too. I think I can fix it though."

Nell pulled out her psychic screwdriver. She adjusted a few settings and pointed it at the airman. He gasped, covered his ears with his hands, and collapsed. Nell checked his pulse.

"He'll be ok, I used hypersonic frequencies to knock him out," she called to her dad. "We don't have much time, they'll figure out that I'm not legitimate any minute now."

Lysander started drilling, creating a smaller hole this time. As soon as it was cool Nell looked through and said "It's good, we're there. Go get the chameleon curtain and get everyone else."

As Nell hid in the hole, she watched as her dad took down the curtain and spoke a few words to those still on the other side of the mineshaft. They quickly ran across the paved tunnel and Lysander put the chameleon curtain back across the new hole.

"How secure is it?" asked Alan.

"It probably won't fool a dog, but it will fool anything else. But they'll be paying attention to the other side, the bigger hole, so the dog will be following our trail to the surface. At least that's the plan now."

"Come on, we've got to keep going. That won't hold them forever." Nell started walking down the mine shaft, and everyone else started following.

"For a group of amateurs, you're holding your own pretty well," said Nicholas.

"I think this is a straight line down," said Nell.

As they traveled deeper they noticed there were tunnels leading off to the side occasionally. Nicholas noticed Robert looking up them as they passed. "Those probably lead to other military tunnels. I expect that the patrols will be intensified after we went through," he explained.

"Then we'd better hurry," said Nell. "I don't know how long we have before they figure out what happened to us."

"No problem there," said Alan. "The regular airmen probably don't even know about this. These tunnels would be a secret known only by the top leadership. By the time they hear about us passing through we'll be well on our way out of here."

"If we can get out," said Lysander.

"Not so loud," said Nell. She glanced at her bracelet, it was indeed glowing more brightly than before. "We need to hurry."

"It's glowing blue," said Lysander.

"I'm still me," said Nell. "Don't worry about that. I just want to get there before more of those security police show up."

The slope of the mine became steeper, as if those who dug it were being drawn in. They proceeded nervously, the only indication that they were traveling in the right direction being the increasing glow of Nell's bracelet. Finally they tunnel leveled out, making the traveling easier.

"Look up there," said Robert.

"What about it?" asked Lysander.

"The lights, they're newer than the ones before."

"The military probably put them in before they sealed this place off," said Alan.

"If you're done admiring the scenery," said Nell.

"Nell," said Robert. "Are you quite yourself?"

"What? Oh." Nell shook her head as if to clear it. "That. Yes, I'm sorry. The pressure is getting more intense. It's like being under water."

"Is it claustrophobia?" asked Alan.

"No, nothing like that. This is psychic pressure. I can feel it pressing on me, from all sides, and the further we go the thicker it gets. It's getting uncomfortable. More than anything I just want to turn around and go back, get out of here, go far away and never come back. But I can't, I have to keep going."

She walked even further down the tunnel forcing everyone else to follow her. Lysander tried to put his hand on her shoulder but she shook it off.

Finally they arrived somewhere. Their flashlights revealed a steel wall with a very large vault door in the center, blocking the tunnel and preventing any further progress.

"This is a surprise," said Lysander. "The military obviously knew that this was a threat and put this up. Was it to keep people out, or keep people in?"

"Both, obviously," said Jessica. "Security works both ways."

"So can you get through this?" asked Alan.

"Yes," said Nell, sounding tense. "Just a moment."

Nell pulled out the sonic screwdriver again. She adjusted the setting and tried it on the door. There were a few clicks, but the door did not open. So she adjusted the setting and tried again. There were a few more clicks again.

"This door is a bit more complex than anticipated. They must have used one of their best locks on it."

"So our quest ends here?" asked Robert.

"No, it doesn't." Nell changed the setting, creating an odd variable tone and pointed it at the door. Finally the door clicked open.

"Four locks, each with their own key, the last two having to be open at the same time. Clever. But it is open now, we can go in. Come on."

Nell went through the door before anyone could caution her in any way, forcing everyone else to follow. Once the party was on the other side of the door she shut it, pointed the sonic screwdriver at it one more time, and said "Now it is locked again, and only I can unlock it. We're safe from the military catching up to us for a while, although since they built the door they can probably cut it."

"Look, a light switch," said Robert.

"Don't," called out Alan.

"Huh?"

"They can probably detect the power consumption, it would give away our position and divert them here instead of searching the way we came in."

"Come on," said Nell.

The mine shaft quickly gave way to a natural cavern. The floor and the ceiling both became quite irregular. Soon they saw stalactites and stalagmites growing, and off in the distance they heard a faint sound that might have been running water. There was apparently a path cut at one time, but it was overrun with rubble. The air was quite still and just a little stuffy.

They path faltered before they got very far. Nell stumbled as they started across the rough terrain, holding her head in her hands.

"Nell," cried out Lysander. The noise startled everyone, so unexpected in the dead silence that had been marred only by their foot steps. He hurried to her side and helped her up. "Are you alright sweetie?"

"Yeah dad, I just lost my footing for a moment." She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

"Be careful. You should probably hold on to my hand." He led her through the irregular cave.

As they moved, slowly and carefully, they noticed that the cavern was widening. They swung their flashlights around and noticed it was getting harder to see the walls on either side.

"This could be trouble," muttered Robert. The soft voice was not nearly as startling as when Lysander had cried out earlier. "How will we know which way to go?"

"We'll just know," said Nell, sounding strained.

"Do you need to rest?" asked Nicholas.

"Probably. Yes. Give me a moment." Nell sat down and closed her eyes again, although in the dark of the cavern it made little difference. She rubbed her temples and then stretched her back.

"I hope the pressure lets up, it is getting very hard to concentrate." She looked at her bracelet and the stones were glowing a very steady blue. "I feel it all around me, but it's not in me. I'm keeping it out. That's why there's so much pressure. Ok, I'm rested."

Nell stood up and walked carefully forward. Everyone else walked with her, forming a protective circle.

"Look up there," said Robert, a little too loudly making everyone flinch. They looked where he was pointing. Up ahead there was an unmistakable faint blue glow in the depths of the cavern.

Chapter Twenty Five

Seeing the light in the distance was encouraging proof that they were going in the right direction. Although the way was still not clear, the direction was. As they got closer the light became brighter, not enough to turn off the flashlights but enough to make the environment feel just a little less claustrophobic.

As they approached they saw that there was construction around the light. At first all they could make out was a constructed ceiling that was below the cave ceiling and a raised floor above the cave floor. The construction reflected the light that was at its center casting an eerie aura around the center which was still not quite visible.

As they stumbled through the cavern, even Nell's spirits started to pick up. They noticed that at the center of the room ahead there was a lot of clutter preventing them from seeing the actual source of the light.

When they got to it, they saw that the floor and the ceiling were about eight feet apart from each other. Both of them were constructed of the same smooth surface which looked somewhat plastic. It was made of triangular tiles, about two feet across, as far as they could see. With some trepidation but also with relief, they stepped up off of the cavern floor onto the construction. They walked towards the center of the room, such as it was, and saw what the obstruction was.

The center of the room was littered with all of the advanced technology that had disappeared over the years. The largest parts were pieces of ships that would be too big to fit in the room if fully assembled, but there were also large computer banks and other, less identifiable pieces of equipment, and the whole place was littered with weapons that did not exist yet on Earth. There seemed to be no real order to the mess, but as they wound their way through it an order started to appear. It appeared as if someone had been starting to connect the eclectic collection of equipment together. Every time there was some sort of projection, it pointed towards the center.

"Look at this treasure," breathed Alan.

"We're not here for that right now," said Robert. "We're here to help Nell."

"Yes, yes, I'm just thinking about later," said Alan.

"Hey, isn't that one of Dandruff's robots?"

Everyone looked where Robert was pointing. Sure enough, there, standing motionless, was one of the robots. Lysander went over and examined it.

"It's completely inactive. The power reading shows that it is mostly full, but it isn't responding to any inputs."

"That makes sense," said Robert. "Whatever brought it here doesn't want it messing anything up. It might escape, or interfere, or something."

"But what is it?" asked Nicholas. "The answer is there."

As they went further towards the center, the equipment became more and more organized. Before they knew it they had arrived. The piles of equipment abruptly gave way to a clearing in the center. In the middle of the clearing was a circular platform ringed by interface panels. In the middle of the platform, floating and slowly revolving, was what looked like a window. The floor beneath the window and the ceiling above the window were glowing serenely, the source of the blue glow, and the light was sufficient so that nobody needed their flashlights anymore even though it was not very bright. The window may have been glowing, or it might have been an optical effect from being confined in the beam of light. The glow was matched by the bright blue of the stones of Nell's bracelet.

"A dimensional window," breathed Lysander. "I'd heard of these, but never hoped to see one. They were still theoretical. Someone actually built one."

"But what is it?" asked Robert.

"It opens a window into another location, a pocket dimension if you will."

"Fascinating," said Nicholas.

"No. It's something to be worried about. We don't know what is on the other side of that window."

"I don't see anything," said Jessica.

"It's there," said Nell.

"I can't make out the reading on this panel," said Robert. "Mr. Rothbard, can you make it out?"

Lysander looked at it. "I'm not familiar with this language. Maybe my computer can translate it, no promises." He pulled out his computer and scanned the closest panel. "Tough luck, no match. This isn't written in any language that I might know about."

Everyone went around to the various panels to see if they could figure anything out. Nobody could figure anything out about these panels.

"I wonder if we could touch that window," said Alan.

"I wouldn't recommend it. There's a lot of energy there. The dimensional warping is very complex. Even if I was safe from being fried, I don't know where I'd end up or if I'd arrive in one piece."

Nell shook her head. "No, you're going about this the wrong way. That's no way to contact the person on the other side of that window."

"Then what?' said Alan.

Nell looked up and spoke directly at the window. "Please show yourself, we wish to talk to you."

At first nothing happened, but then the after several tense seconds some vapors started to swirl in the window. The swirls became more intense, until finally a face appeared in the window. It was the same as the being they had met in the abandoned church. The face appeared on either side of the window, so it did not matter much which way it was facing as it revolved.

"Greetings Eleanor Rothbard, welcome to my home, but I asked you to not bring the representatives of the Three Families with you when you came. Still I welcome you."

"She asked you to come here without us?"

"Hush, yes," said Lysander. "But we didn't. Don't you feel silly about not trusting us now?"

"So now that we're here, now what?" Nell asked.

"I need your help, Eleanor Rothbard. I need you to help release me."

"What? Release you?"

"Yes. I protect the Antelope Valley the best that I am able, bringing everything down here that might be a threat, things that people of this time are not yet ready for, but I can only do so much on my own. I need your help so that I may function fully and protect this valley."

"Interesting," said Lysander. "You claimed to be the essence of, or the incarnation of, this valley when we spoke to you. Now that we are here we find you trapped in a pocket dimension, able to access our world only through that window. If you were indeed an essence or incarnation that would most likely be something mystical. Yet you are trapped by something that we were beginning to theorize, something clearly scientific. There is something wrong with your story."

"Lysander Rothbard, you do not trust me?"

"Quite frankly, no. Not really. But then I'm always suspicious. It comes from being a political subversive. Your story has too many holes. When you met us in the ruined church, one of your focal points, Nell was unable to read you. Clearly that wasn't a projection as much as it was a hologram, nothing but light and sound and not a mind present at the time. Nell, what do you read now?"

"Dad, I can't read anything, it's too much." Nell winced.

"Steady, sweetie, you can do it." Lysander turned back to the face in the window. "That only makes this more interesting. This is the second time she couldn't read you. The first time was because you weren't there, and this time it is because you are here, so much of you in fact that even through that window, which no doubt diminishes you your presence is overwhelming her. Furthermore it appears that you aren't simply collecting these things to keep them out of other people's hands, but to put them to use for yourself. Obviously someone has been connecting these items to each other. Now what possible use could a being such as you have for technology of this level? It could be as you claim, to release you. But if you are trapped in there, obviously someone put you in there. Those consoles aren't displaying any human language, so you can't blame it on the military, even if they had the technology, which they don't."

"Now hold on a minute," said Nicholas. "It sounds like they aren't all that interested in you, but they're not speaking for us."

"He addresses me. How interesting."

"Now tell me, why didn't you want any representatives of the Families here?"

"Lysander Rothbard, I did not want them here because of their desire to exploit that which I had collected. These materials must be kept safe."

"And ready for you to use, by the looks of it."

"Now hold on a minute," said Nicholas. "Don't write us off just yet. The Three Families have some pretty extensive resources. We're only a small part of a much larger picture, and we have access to information and talent that isn't really available anywhere else, unless maybe you want to deal with the government. And if you deal with them, that's a whole other set of problems. If you can't make things work with these people, maybe you should consider us."

"He addresses me again. Nicholas Kotz of the Three Families, I know of your organization. Your goals are not my goals. What you could offer me, I am not interested in. I am interested in Nell Rothbard. Only she has the necessary skills and abilities to help me. Only she has the knowledge and talent I need."

"Don't sell us short. We might have a lot to offer you."

"Of course, she doesn't need you. Look at what she already has here? All this stuff that you want for yourself, she already has it. All she needs is a way out of that cage. And she never did tell s why she was put into that cage, or who put here there. Someone obviously did. And ever since then, she turned this valley into a Null Zone by taking anything interesting, anything strange, anything unusual, and drawing it down here. She even drew us down here, both our group and yours."

"And what are you planning to do, Lysander? You can't stop us from making some deal with her if your daughter turns her down."

"I don't think I'll have to, but if I do then I'll think of something." Lysander turned back to the face in the window. "So what do you have to say to all of this?"

"Lysander Rothbard, you are a very suspicious person, but my intentions are good. I wish only peace for my valley. That is why I will now turn to Eleanor Rothbard and ask her what she desires."

Everyone turned to face Nell. She rubbed her face, then took a deep breath.

"Sorry, I don't think I'll help you. You're not worth it."

Chapter Twenty Six

Everyone turned to face Nell at this rather surprising comment. The face in the window showed no emotion at Nell's announcement as the window continued to slowly revolve in the beam of light.

"Eleanor Rothbard, why will you not help me?"

"Because you lied to me. You told me that my bout of greed was due to a remnant of Janus within my own mind. It wasn't. It was you. And do you want to know how I can tell? Because of the color display on my psychic detector. It glows white for me, it glowed white for Janus. For some reason it glows blue for you, and it did so when I had that mysterious fit. It was you. I don't want to help you, I don't like being used."

"It was with good intentions, Eleanor Rothbard. I need your help, and you and your father are the only ones capable of providing the assistance I need. He has the knowledge, you have the skill. I needed you to come to me. My methods were wrong, and for that I apologize."

"There it is again, with good intentions. My dad told me if someone tells you their intentions are good, run the other way because they're using their intentions to excuse whatever else they are doing. No matter how noble your goals, no matter how pure your ideals, no matter how good your intentions, if you look down and discover you're eating babies, you're no longer the good guy."

"Now hold on a moment," said Nicholas. "You've heard them turn you down. Maybe now you'll be willing to listen to our offer. Once we get back up to the surface, I can contact the rest of the Families and tell them what's down here. They'll make sure the military works with us and we can help you out quite a bit. Of course, we want something out of it as well, but I'm sure we can come to some sort of equitable arrangement."

The face in the window said nothing as the window continued to float and slowly rotate in the beam of light.

"You're not going to answer either of us?" asked Nell. "Somehow I'm not surprised. The pressure you've been applying has been pretty intense. I'm surprised that they can't feel it – unless you only intended it for me. Have you been working on them? Or are you only going to start now? I warn you, I have experience with freeing people from mind control. You remember Janus."

"I wonder something," said Lysander. "If this place is so Null, and it is because you made it so, why did Janus land here in the first place? Shouldn't he have landed somewhere else? Anywhere else?"

"I drew him here," said the face in the window. "I drew him here to further my own plans. He was never going to succeed in taking over the world. All I needed was for him to successfully unite the Antelope Valley, and then I would take the network he created and use the energy of it to release me."

"I spoiled your plans then, didn't I?" asked Nell.

"It was only a temporary setback. You did disturb a potential hastening of my plans, you did not destroy my inevitable release from this trap."

"I'm beginning to see why you are trapped in there. You were willing to sacrifice everyone in this valley for your own goals. What else are you capable of? How many people are you willing to sacrifice?"

"It would be better if you were to ask what you are willing to sacrifice, Eleanor Rothbard."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Alan.

"I think it's pretty clear she doesn't care about your offer," said Nell. "I think she means to use you as leverage against me."

"What?"

"We can't go back the way we came. She isn't interested in you, but lets you stay. She also lets dad and Rob stay, and even talks to dad. She could send you away if she wanted. At least I think she can."

"Eleanor Rothbard, it appears you will not be easily persuaded. Perhaps if you were to know this you would agree to help." The face faded from the window, and then another face took its place. It took a moment to form, but when it did, both Nell and Lysander gasped. The face was that of Nell's mom.

"No!" yelled out Lysander. "No!"

"Help me," she said. "I'm trapped in here, help me."

"It can't be. You died after we got here, I held you in my arms."

"Ly, is that you? I can't see you. I can't get out. I'm all alone. Help me."

"Mom?" asked Nell, sounding a little frightened and unsure. "Mom? Is that really you?"

"Nelly, help me."

"No!" shouted Lysander. "Not you! It can't be! Come back and talk to us, alien!"

The face of Nell's mom faded with a slight wail, and then the face of the alien appeared again.

"How DARE you!" began Lysander.

"Quiet," said the alien. "I dare what I need. She is with me and has been since her mortal death."

"Then I demand you release her."

"I am not able to do that. She is now trapped in here as surely as I am. She was my first attempt to draw a person down here to help me, with her knowledge and skills. Sadly it did not work the way I intended and her selfhood was detached from her body. She came to reside here with me. In her new state she was not able to help release me. If I you help me I can build her a new body and she can be with you again. I cannot do that from where I am, nor would it be advisable to try at this time."

"Mom?" repeated Nell, still sounding shaken. "Dad, we've got to help her."

Lysander closed his eyes, put his hands together and put them in front of his mouth and nose. He breathed deeply trying to regain control of himself.

"I'm sorry Nelly, we can't. She wouldn't want us to."

"Dad, it's mom." There was a sound very close to tears in her voice.

"Mom passed away when you were little. She wouldn't want us to save her, not at this cost. Not at the cost of hurting others like this alien wants."

"How can you say that?"

"I know your mom."

Everyone else was quiet. This was too personal and private a decision to intrude upon.

"What is your decision?" asked the alien in the floating window.

All eyes were on Nell and Lysander.

"Do it Nell," said Robert.

"Yes, help her," said Nicholas.

"Your mom needs you," said Jessica.

"You can do so much good," said Alan.

"Yes, Nelly. Do as she says," said Lysander.

Nell looked wide eyed at the alien. "You let them go."

"Eleanor Rothbard, you are the one I cannot control, but you are also the one I need help from. I can let them go if you promise to help me."

"And I can set them free no doubt."

"You are not dealing with a Janus this time. You are welcome to try."

Nell held her father's hand. She concentrated. She could feel the alien inside his mind, but could not touch it.

"Let him go," said Nell.

"As soon as you choose to help me."

Nell looked around. She was alone. All her companions were controlled by the alien in the pocket dimension on the other side of the floating window. She walked towards the equipment that had been collected by the alien.

"No," she said, and pulled out her sonic screwdriver, pointed, and activated it. There was a high pitched warbling noise and sparks flew out of the equipment in front of her.

"Noooo!" wailed the alien.

"Let them go," said Nell.

The five people in the cave moved to restrain Nell, but she jumped up on top of a cabinet of equipment and pointed the screwdriver at them.

"Back off, don't make me use this on you," Nell said.

"They won't back off," said the alien.

Nell pointed the screwdriver at another rack of equipment and activated it. More sparks flew out as the internal circuitry strained under conflicting commands and the physical structure yielded to the urge to disassemble. Nell leapt across to the second bank of equipment and out of range of the grasping hands of those chasing her.

Seeing that Nell was getting away, the alien tried something new. Agent Dandrough's robots stirred and started to pursue her.

"Oh now that's just not fair," said Nell, running across the uneven surface of the equipment. "That's simply not fair."

Finding a safe spot she turned her sonic screwdriver on the nearest robot, changed the setting, and activated it. The robot stopped in its tracks. One by one she deactivated the robots, leaving only humans chasing her.

"What are you doing?" came the voice of the alien. "Stop that at once."

"Robots, restrain the five humans chasing me," said Nell. "Do not hurt them."

The robots turned and quickly captured everybody.

"You overplayed your hand, lady," said Nell. "Now I'm in charge." Nell reached in to her bag and pulled out the psychic amplifier. She put it on her head and then turned to those being held by the robots.

"You are now free of that alien's control," she said. All five of the people being held by the robots started to blink as if being woken up from a long sleep.

"First things first, we collapse the tunnel leading into here. I don't want anyone to get back in here after we're done.

"But we'll need that to get out," protested Nicholas.

"I don't think so. But if we do, well, we're saving the world. Dad, do you still have that laser?"

"Yes, but I don't think it's powerful enough."

"Do you see anything here that is?"

Lysander looked around a little. "Lots of things. This one should do."

"Hand it over," said Nell as she climbed down and rejoined the rest. When Lysander handed her the blaster she reactivated it with the sonic screwdriver.

"Good, let's go over to the cavern entrance and collapse the tunnel. That will keep out members of the families as well as the military."

Chapter Twenty Seven

The representatives of the families did want to protest but with two robots each holding them back their protests amounted to nothing more than complaints about the proposed course of action. They wound their way through the cavern, with six of the robots clearing a path, and finally got back to the steel vault door.

"Do you suppose anyone is on the other side right now?" asked Alan.

"I don't know," said Nell. "If there are I hope they get out of the way."

"So you're willing to sacrifice some soldiers in order to save us?"

"Unit Eleven, scan for life forms on the other side of the door."

"There are no life forms on the other side of the door."

"There you go. Now dad, use that blaster to collapse the ceiling. If you aim it right you should get both sides of this door. Everyone else, back out of this shaft back into the cavern."

Everyone backed out, and Lysander picked a good spot on the ceiling to fire at. The blaster was much stronger than he was used to, and the intensity of the shot caused him to drop it. Still, the shot was true, and after a series of rumbling the tunnel collapsed.

Everyone else was apprehensive but wasn't going to argue with Nell as she led everyone back to the edge of the room. Basking in the light of the very dim blue glow, everyone waited for Nell to describe what comes next.

"Be on your guard. At any moment that alien might take you back. Or it might activate more of the technology to use against us. Or it might take over the robots again."

"But Nell, how are we going to get out of here?" asked Robert.

"I'm working on that," said Nell.

"So you trapped us in here without a plan?" asked Nicholas, disbelief almost shrill in his voice.

"I've got part of a plan. Well, not a complete plan, but most of it."

The representatives of the Families looked both worried and angry at that, but since there seemed to be no other options.

"There are two goals. The first is to search through the collection from the discarded craft to find a teleport. There are two robots per person to help with the scans if you have any doubt. The second is to destroy anything else except for the teleport and the dimensional gizmo that the window is floating in."

"Why not the window also?" Alan was looking rather skeptical.

"Because I don't know enough about it. It's active, who knows what kind of weird energies are involved there. I certainly don't."

"And because your mom is there?" asked Jessica.

"Yes. Also because my mom is there. I don't want to trap her there if she is there. I would like to rescue her someday. And before you ask, the stuff here probably wouldn't do because otherwise she would have opened the window already. She'll have to start fresh. So will we. It's better than the alternative."

"And you're not worried?"

"Of course I am. We're far enough away that it makes it difficult for her to influence us. You were right there in front of her when she took you over. The robots are a bigger risk. I don't know how long my reprogram will last. I really don't know what she can do, or how long it will take her to work. We're relatively safe here, I can feel the pressure but it's not too bad. Getting closer, that will be when the problems will start to get worse."

"And if we get taken over again?" asked Robert.

"I can help you again. It won't be the same as Janus. This is full control, and it is far stronger. If you think you can resist at all then please try. And if you think the robots are being taken over again, then let me know too."

"If we have time," said Alan.

"Dad, you go first and find some decent weaponry. Units one and two go with him. All other units, monitor the status of units one and two."

Nervous, Lysander stepped on to the raised floor. Units one and two followed without any hesitation. They walked towards the edge of the clutter. After a brief bit of rummaging they returned each carrying a couple of large firearms.

"I got them. Can you make them work?"

"Probably," said Nell. She got out the sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the first blaster and adjusted it. "Yes, this one is good. Robert, you take it. Next."

One by one the blasters were activated. Each human now had one blaster, in addition to Lysander's pocket laser and Nell's sonic screwdriver.

"Good. We're armed. Now all robots, start continuous status monitor of each other. If any robot detects a change in the programming of any other robot, alarm and immediately inform the nearest human. So, ready?"

"What if our minds are interfered with?"

"I can handle that. Trust me, I'm the psychic one, remember."

As everyone split up, Robert lagged behind to talk with Nell.

"I thought you said your psychic amplifier was burned out."

"Well, I don't really want to talk about it right now."

"I think you should. You lied to me."

"No, I repaired it. But I didn't tell you about it because I didn't want you to worry. I know you don't like it very much."

"You've got that right."

"Tell you what. When this is over, you can keep it. I'll only use it if you think it is important for me to have it. Too much power isn't good for anyone.

A few moments later blaster fire started ringing out in various locations around the cavern. Although the alien couldn't be heard from this far out, Nell could detect her rage and knew she would be screaming in anguish at this rampant destruction. Taking two robots with her he had them scan for teleport technology while destroying everything else.

"Truce," came a voice ringing out across the room. Everyone stopped firing for a moment. Nell went over to Robert, ordered her robots to remain with him, and the went back to the center to confront the alien.

"You called for a truce?"

"You insignificant gnat, yes I called for a truce. I want to parlay, to negotiate. You are destroying what has taken me decades to accumulate. Fortunately I haven't integrated that supply yet, but you have done some damage to the parts that I have."

"Oh, thanks for reminding me. I should have been focusing on the inner equipment while my companions focused on the outer equipment."

"If you do that, Eleanor Rothbard, your mother will pay the price."

Nell glared at the alien, who glared back.

"So what do we do now to stop hurting each other?"

"You help me to get out of this prison."

"No. How about you let us go. The six of us, and those twelve robots, you send us back to the surface. You don't bother us and we don't bother you."

"I get nothing from that."

"Yes you do. You get to keep what we haven't destroyed yet. I'm pretty sure that we've destroyed a fair amount of your treasure pile, although there is a lot of work left to do. I can release my companions from your mind control and I can release Dandrough's robots from your control. You can make it hard but you can't stop us."

"I can."

"You can't stop me then. The only way you will stop me is to destroy me, and that means you will lose what you want. Also, if you do hurt any of them, I'll keep destroying everything here until you are forced to kill me. So it comes down to this, would you rather allow me to leave, or would you rather kill me. I'm not going to help you, not under these conditions."

The face in the window did not show any reaction as the window continued to revolve slowly in the beam of light. Several tense moments passed as everyone waited for the decision of the alien.

"You give me no choices then. Bring everyone together and I will send your group back to the surface."

"The twelve robots too."

"If you must, but leave behind any and all other technology that was here before you arrived."

Nell climbed up onto a cabinet. "Ok everyone, back to the center. We've made a deal."

There was some scrambling, but everyone got back. Alan addressed the alien when he got there. "We didn't destroy anything, I just want you to know that. We're still open to negotiations."

"He addresses me," was all that the alien said.

"We've made a deal. She will transport us all back to the surface, all six of us plus Dandrough's robots. The blasters you've picked up stay behind. Anything else you picked up stays behind too. Leave behind anything you picked up or she won't send you to the surface. And if you get left behind, I'll be up there so I won't be able to negotiate to get you out of here. You understand? So empty those pockets, we're not taking any souvenirs."

Nell checked her pockets, even though she hadn't put anything in there. She turned to the alien.

"Will you send us all at once?"

"As soon as you are ready. I do not have the desire to do this a second time, Eleanor Rothbard. A teleport is a tiring thing."

"Alright everyone, drop your weapons, and anything else. We're going now."

There was a flash of very bright light. When they came to they were in the middle of the Antelope Valley desert. The sunlight was quite bright compared to the darkness of the cavern below.

"I think she sent us straight up," said Lysander.

"Where's Alan?" asked Nicholas.

Everyone looked around. All the robots were there, as well as five humans, but Alan was definitely missing. Nell closed her eyes and concentrated.

"He had some souvenirs in his pockets. He hoped she wouldn't notice. I'm afraid he's lost down there. Maybe she'll send him up later, but I won't get my hopes up. I'm afraid he's quite trapped."

"Get him out of there," demanded Jessica.

"I can't. I did everything I could. I got all the rest of us out of there. I negotiated safe passage. I tried to save everyone. I did my best." Nell sounded disappointed, angry with herself for only getting five people out.

"Nelly," said Lysander. "Sometimes you can't save everyone. You keep thinking you have the brains and the power, but if someone doesn't want to be saved then there's nothing you can do for them."

"You're right dad. Ok, unit eleven, which way back to Lancaster?"

Chapter Twenty Eight

"I demand that you get Alan back immediately," said Nicholas, his voice as soon as they were back at the storefront.

"I can't," protested Nell. "I told him what he had to do. Only one person now can get him out. I'm not going back down there to help him, and after that cave in we triggered I can't go back down there. She won't pull me back down there."

"You're going to sacrifice your own mom?" asked Jessica.

"No. Someday I'll know what I have to do to get her out, just her. Then I'll go back there and rescue her. If Alan is still there I'll rescue him at the same time. But not until then. I simply can't. Perhaps if you get to work trying to build contacts in the military, that would be a place where you can start. Right now we have one other loose end to tie up."

"What would that be?"

"Agent Dandrough. I need to get ready but I need you to bring him to me. In the meantime, dad, get out of here."

As soon as Lysander had left, Nell turned to the robots. "All units, you will delete any memory and references to the man who has just left. At no time did you come into contact with him. Do you understand?"

"Affirmative," replied the robots.

"You will also delete any memory or references of any use of the computer he was using. Do you understand?"

"Affirmative," replied the robots.

"Good. Execute instructions."

There was no visible sign from the robots that anything was happening.

"Now, bring me Agent Dandrough," said Nell.

"Why should we bother?" asked Jessica. "What good will it do us?"

"It will get him off of your hands. I suppose you could just release him, throw him out on the street. I need to tie up this loose end either way. If he thinks that the Families retrieved his robots, it might give him enough respect to not want to harass you any further though."

"I think I should get out of here," said Robert.

"Good idea," said Nell. "Now move, we need to rid ourselves of that incompetent bumbler from the future."

With a sour look on his face Nicholas went to retrieve Agent Dandrough. A few minutes later he returned with Agent Dandrough in tow. Agent Dandrough looked exceedingly sullen.

"You should know, interfering with mission is not a good idea if you want to stay out of trouble," said Agent Dandrough. "I do not consider what I've gone through to be good treatment."

"I'd say we treated you very well. Look, we recovered your whole team."

Agent Dandrough finally noticed the robots. His eyes grew large. "Where did you find them?"

"The Families have extensive resources to track down oddities of this sort. The threat that stole them has been dealt with, but at great cost. Now I recommend that you get out of here as soon as possible, and forget about trying to find my grandfather. I have no desire for my own personal timeline to be disturbed."

"We'll see what gets disturbed. I'm going to find your grandfather."

"I can show you to his gravesite, if that would help you."

Agent Dandrough looked disappointed.

"Come, walk with me. The cemetery is only a short walk away, and you look as if you could use some exercise after your long confinement. Your robots may accompany us."

Nell, Agent Dandrough, and the twelve robots left the storefront. Trying to look as regal as possible, Nell led Agent Dandrough on a walk across Lancaster to the cemetery in the middle of town.

"And where are they buried?"

"I am coming to that," said Nell. "One would think that after being locked up for a few days your attitude would have improved. You should be grateful for a chance to stretch your legs. I trust your confinement wasn't too uncomfortable?"

"I was taken care of."

Nell led them across the graveyard to a stone plaque in the ground. This was it, the moment that would decide if the ruse would work.

Agent Dandrough read the plaque. "L. S. Rothbard, 1901 to 1985, and W. M. Rothbard, 1908 to 1989." He looked up. "So far your story checks out. Unit five, scan the grave, scan under the ground, see if you can verify this."

Unit five looked them over. "The weathering is sufficient for a plaque placed on this ground on the date specified. Under the ground there are two urns with ashes, also consistent with burial at the time listed on the plaque. Cremated remains are impossible to analyze."

"So the only way to check out your story is to go back a few decades. Very well, you have me convinced. I'll report this back to my superiors. Robots, time to return to headquarters."

There was a flash and a bang that left Nell momentarily stunned. When she could see again she saw that she was alone in the graveyard. She pulled out her cell phone and called her dad, getting her voice mail.

"Ok dad, they're gone. Come pick me up, bring the headstone we replaced."

She walked back to the curb and sat on the low fence around the graveyard. She idled herself by watching the cars go by. As she waited she saw Nicholas Kotz walk up to her.

"So you showed him a fake grave?"

"Oh it was a real grave, just a fake headstone."

"He believed it?"

"I instructed his robots to believe it, he believes what they say. He went back to the future."

"You know, Nell Rothbard, once we got over being angry at leaving Alan behind, we came to an agreement. You are still highly skilled and eminently qualified. We would like for you to work for us."

"I prefer acting as an independent agent. Perhaps we might work together sometime in the future."

"Do you think we'll have opportunity to do so?"

"Oh I wouldn't be surprised if we did. Now we know the secret. This place isn't a Null Zone at all. It's a magnet for weird as the alien down below looks for new tools to escape. I think that it is up to us, for our own disparate reasons, to try to stop this. I don't want this place messed up."

"Nell of the Null Zone then. Well, you enjoy it. You know how to reach us, and we know how to reach you."

"Oh, we are going to want to go back to the cavern as soon as the military stops swarming like a disturbed ant hill, we left our chameleon cloak in the tunnel."

"We no longer have much of a reason to go back there."

"I know. I won't need you to take me there anyway. I remember the way. Just like I remember everything. Perfect recall. I'm just letting you know what we will be doing so that there's no suspicion. I figure we owe you that much considering that we were working together for a while, a temporary alliance of sort. And if you could do us the courtesy of not taking my dad's chameleon cloak before we do I'd appreciate it."

"What if the military finds it?"

"I don't think that's likely, but if they do we'll just write it up as a loss. And look for new articles about amazing advances in stealth technology on the news. Also remember that I know when you're lying, so don't even try."

"It looks like if we're going to work together in the future, we have to keep playing it straight on our end. I've submitted a report to the families. I expect they're going to take a greater interest in everything around here."

"Great," said Nell.

"And of course they're going to be interested in you as well. But I'll do what I can to restrain them."

"Which isn't much, I see. They'll just have to learn their lesson in turn."

"True, they will. I'll tell them not to underestimate you. Well, good evening Nell."

"Bye." Nell stood up and started pacing. The future was going to be a lot more complicated than she thought.

"Well, I do have dad, and I do have Robert," she said to herself. "I have companions to help me through whatever is coming up. I guess I can be 'Nell of the Null Zone' as Mr. Kotz called me."

She sat back down on the wall. Finally her dad pulled over to pick her up.

"Dad, can you tell me more about the future?"

"It's not good to know too much about it."

"But I'm from the future, just like you. Unless you want us to live our whole life here, then you want to go back someday. Do you want to leave me behind?"

"I didn't think about it, ever since the temporal capabilities of the vortex manipulator broke. But if it ever got repaired, I suppose I would have to let you choose. Would you want to go back to the future with me?"

"I don't know. I didn't even know I was from the future until just recently. Now there's so much I still don't know but I want to find out. So what really happened that sent you back here?"

"In my time and place, there was a very despotic government. I was part of the resistance to it. We were called 'Occutea' after the two great protest movements of this era as this country descended into tyranny. I chose this time because I wanted to study the Occupy movement and the Tea movement back when they were separate movements. It turns out that at this point in history they weren't nearly as exciting as they became when they finally merged."

"So your group is from that merger?"

"No, the original Occutea movement died out after the country became free again. We were simply named after them in an effort to irritate the government. We were revolutionaries and radicals. And like every resistance movement not everyone was involved for noble reasons."

"So there was fighting"

"It was starting to come to that. I was a propagandist, and a pretty effective one because they noticed me and wanted to eliminate me. By day I worked in the news, by night I spread the real story underground. The one thing every government hates is someone who tells the truth."

"But dad, what about us then?"

"What?"

"I'm not planning on telling people about the Families, or that alien in the cave, or Janus, or future threats that we'll have to deal with. Are you saying I should tell the truth about those?"

"No, Nell. Some secrets are best kept secret. You go ahead, protect this valley. Time to go home, though, and get some rest. Who knows what our next adventure will be."


End file.
